I'm trying to return my interior to OEM (from gutted) as much as possible, but I'm contemplating using generic carpet instead of OEM.
The Mazda carpet appears to be preformed and precut which obviously would save a lot of time and grief, but generic carpeting is about ten times cheaper.
I'm not too worried about the lack of "wear padding" in the driver's footwell area, because I'll always use floormats overtop.
I know generic carpeting would work well in the rear hatch area, but would there be any fitment issues using it in the front?
Can anyone who installed either, relate their experience?
I might even consider using two pieces in front, meeting under the console.
Also wondering how thick OEM front carpet is ?

Thanks.

 

You get what you pay for. I'd definitely go for the OEM. Preformed and its a weave style carpet which is much thicker and will stand the test of time. My bet is that the generic is regular fuzz. Stick with the OEM.

 

There was a group buy started last year which eventually fell through because the company that was trying to preform the carpet (a reputable and well known one that supplies most of the carpet to restoration specialist ) could not get get a cost effective mold created. With the added complexity of the mazda foam and insulation layering it became too difficult and eventually the group buy collapsed.

The short answer is go OEM.

A few members here have cut and glued their own carpet, tucking the edges under the consoles and bins, I guess it boils down to what you want the interior to look like.

 

Years ago, Gordon Monsen had an interior shop do full custom carpeting (we're talking Mercedes S-class level carpeting). It cost a whopping $8XX (sarcastic here). About the same as the OEM carpeting.