toyota, as brilliant as they are, decided to make very light gray carpet pretty common in the tacoma.
as such, the OE mats as well as the rest of the carpet are incredibly prone to assault by the very stuff that a truck is meant to conquer...DIRT.
due to all the accelerator shenanigans and bad press, they discontinued any sort of all weather mat, so i opted when i purchased my tacoma to get the weathertech liners and they are 100% what i hoped they would be in this vehicle. granted, i had to do a little notching as they aren't designed for the manual, but that didn't inhibit the protection of the mats at all and required just a little massaging with a dremel.
i find them to be incredibly expensive, but honestly there is nothing else that compares. i felt as if i had to get them and i am happy i did.
if i had a luxury vehicle with light carpet i would not hesitate to use these. i would probably more inclined to use the OE all weather mat, if available, but the liners would be the next best choice and would naturally be a better choice for all-out protection.