mazda3, the epitome of versatility: a floorboard thread

[my3needsaname]

I thought this would make an interesting thread...
I was looking in the hatch of mine and was staring at the little hooks on the sides of the floor boards and on the walls. I pulled the hooks down and lined up the floor boards to notice that the 3's are the epitome of versatility. Four hooks and two floorboards=endless possibilities. Now I hung the smaller board on top of the hooks and it kinda snapped into place to make a shelf and then the larger one made a nice little wall in front of it for a sealed off compartment in the hatch area. I thought this was pretty neat so I was wondering what other 3 owners have found when they started playing around with the hooks and floorboards.

Please show and tell, the more pictures the better.
Don't be shy.

 

[major error]

oh, I figured all that out after maybe the 2nd or 3rd day of ownership.
Think it was in the manual/quick-start guide too.

I really only use the shelf & divider when I go grocery shopping--bread/chips/(squishing bad!) stuff on the shelf, and everything else on the bottom.

 

[sl0wthe0ry]

+1 for the grocery getters!!!!!!!!!

 

[Olestra]

Whoa! I have to be the first to admit that I had no idea you could do that.
I never played with the hooks, I thought they were there for some other add-on or bungie cords, etc.

I'm gonna go play with that now. (2thumbs)

 

[AndrewSquared]

That's great, I had no idea what the bloody hooks were for, and never noticed the grooves in the bottom of the boards to clip into them, my biggest complaint had been how to stop junk from rolling around on stuff when grocery shopping.

 

[kickniteasy]

wow....I've never seen that before, nice!

 

[my3needsaname]

Thanks guys,
I'm not one for reading the quick start or owners manual so I learn by doing. This just happened to be something I was pondering for about a week until I was like "hey I bet that fits right on those hooks" and tried it.

But if you guys find anything else take pics and tell the world.

 

[major error]

just keep in mind that the hooks are only plastic, and as they age they won't necessarily stay in the position you left them.

One dropped down while I was loading the car recently, and I snapped one side of the loop...
Apparently, you can't order them separately--you have to get the whole panel.

 

[my3needsaname]

Well of course they would age and break like that but if you keep the hatch cover on then they should last for the life of the car. I mean that's what I assume but at the rate the parts are failing on mine then I don't know about them. I've only got 450 miles so far and teh light on my spoiler just stopped working last night for some reason...maybe because it's 108 in the shade here...Mazda will fix it soon.

 

[my3needsaname]

So nobody's gone to experiment with their floorboards?

 

[clicknext]

Oooo wish mine could do that

 

[kickniteasy]

if it makes you guys feel better about not knowing about it, I showed the dealer it today and he had no idea, haha.

 

[my3needsaname]

lol, sounds like the dealer I bought the car from.

 

[latin_dude]

Ima try it out right now!

 

[latin_dude]

sorry, ic ouldnt take pic. but damn theres three ways u can do it, you can hide the main big one behind the seats, and pu the other one as a shelf haha, just pu the other one as ahself, or put the small one as a shelf hide your illegal acitivities items under it,a nd ptu the big one stanging in front of the "shelf"

 

[muchdutch]

I can't believe your guys' dealers didn't show you this when you got it. Did they go over any other features?
My dealer went through every little thing with me. Most things I knew, some things I learned (including this trunk bit), and some things I taught him. Even though it was pretty silly to go through things like 'this is how you turn the power on to the radio', it was still useful and informative (esp. since my last car was a '92 without all the fancy options!).
There was a form that I needed to fill out once I got delivery and it asked me if the salesman went through everything - I thought it was standard for Mazda.

 

[my3needsaname]

It is, I got the same form. I was just in a hurry when they took so damn long doing the full up front payment that we didn't have time. So I just said sure he went through everything and learned most of this stuff on my own.

 

[latin_dude]

they had me fill out the form, but the sales person and I became good buddies, i think he though I knew more about he car than he did (which is still right...) and i had been waiting for my car for 2 days lol.