Car seat hire or bring your own?

[R250]

Car seats can be an emotive subject and there have been studies into whether they are actually providing any extra safety if not make things worse in an accident.

The TED Talk by Steven Levitt on YouTube is interesting if anyone has a spare 20 mins sometime.

Personally I have taken my car seat to various countries. You can buy them cheap from the likes of ASDA and when I’ve seen what you get provided by some car rental places, it’s the same cheapo ones... (obviously this is dependant on whether you think higher cost = more safety, given regardless of price they would meet the relevant legislation)

I’ve never lugged my Cybex car seat around as it’s a beast and weighs a tonne. But I have a Britax seat and one of the cheaper ones from ASDA. I’ve taken both of those ones to other countries with me.

Regarding hidden damage, again this is subjective. If you’ve ever cleaned a seat it would be obvious if anything is broken when taking the covers off etc. I transport the seats in their original packaging so they’re as ‘protected’ as they were when I bought them in the shop and they were transported from China or wherever they were made.

I believe it becomes less important the older the child. Once you’re using the cars seat belt to restrain the child the seat belt is infinitely more important than the seat.

I wonder how many of us methodically check the state and response of all seat belts in the hire car before we plug the buckle in... another discussion :-P

[paulfoel]

Originally Posted by chmurf

you'll find many threads dealing with the subject

your airline will carry them for you as part of the kids allowance, but you'll need to be able to handle them (and use second bag drop at MCO resulting in longer wait times at the airport)

I personnaly wouldn't advise, as they might sustain unvisible damage during the flight, and would always rent, but, well, it's personnal decision

if you're staying at disney's you have the option of having one adult and the kids on the DME and another adult driving to the nearest walmart and purchase the seats, but no guarantee you'll get the cheaper than renting

one solution we used one year was to buy a bumble bum for our DS
it's an inflatable booster seat (seat only, no back) but the child will only be secured by the seatbelt
so you decide if it's safe enough, again personnal decision


as far as renting go, I would book a car at alamo, and rent the seats from them, as you get to choose your seat, and they're clean , in very good condition, and wrapped in plastic.

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Invisible damage to car seat? Like what? OK if the plane drove over it it might be a bit damaged.

Experience I've had of car seats from the hire company is a huge pile of manky, cracked, filthy dirty ones piled in the corner. No way are they any better in a million years...

I've seen them being chucked 20 yards by car rental employees onto the top of the pile.

[Thelostprincess]

Thanks so much for everyone's input! I know it can be a something that divides opinions and it's great to hear from your experiences.

Obviously I'm concerned with safety and would hope my own carseats wouldn't get damaged or if I rent I'd hope I wouldn't be given a faulty carseat but I guess there's going to be that risk either way unless I buy 3 brand new seats once arriving.

I think I'll bring my eldests booster either way and make a call on the twins closer to the time and see if they will be big enough for high backs which aren't too heavy. My main issue is managing 3 kids in the airport after a long flight with all the baggage etc but I'm an over thinker and like everything planned to a t so I just need to relax a bit!

[Saratoska]

Originally Posted by Thelostprincess

Thanks so much for everyone's input! I know it can be a something that divides opinions and it's great to hear from your experiences.

Obviously I'm concerned with safety and would hope my own carseats wouldn't get damaged or if I rent I'd hope I wouldn't be given a faulty carseat but I guess there's going to be that risk either way unless I buy 3 brand new seats once arriving.

I think I'll bring my eldests booster either way and make a call on the twins closer to the time and see if they will be big enough for high backs which aren't too heavy. My main issue is managing 3 kids in the airport after a long flight with all the baggage etc but I'm an over thinker and like everything planned to a t so I just need to relax a bit!

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my son is in a wheelchair so slightly off topic re the car seats but my concern and this where I understand what you mean in that not having the luggage trolleys from point of carousel pickup at Orlando (unlike Sanford where you can get the trolley at the baggage terminal and push straight to your car)

having cases, wee ones (in our case also a wheelchair) we might not be able to do it bar doing the second drop which after reading means your luggage takes hours

my children are coming this year with my 2 young GC ages 4 and 2 and even though its Sanford I am going to sit down and ask them if they would rather rent . GS chair is a britax , which we actually bought for holidays only but it is big but for Sanford might work

[katnav]

The first time we went we hired from alamo. They were fine in terms of condition but like you said it is expensive. Second time we took a booster ourselves for our youngest. Our eldest didnt need one anymore and we will be taking our own booster again this time. It's so easy as they are checked for free and saves some money for other things.

[Mr Tom Morrow]

For all those renting bear in mind the fee is capped and for the average 2 week holiday you can save a bit of money. More if your holiday is longer.

[Universalnewbie]

That's great I didn't realise there was a price cap. We have a car booked with alamo for 16 days and we are traveling with 18 month old twins in march/april. The thoughts of lugging our own car seats with all the rest of the luggage and double buggy etc fills me with dread. Does anyone happen to know what the price cap per car is per rental period? I have looked on alamo and couldn't find the answer. Thanks a million

[fredflintstone]

Whilst I do not have experience of one yet, but have just brought one for a hols in spain shortly for the 10 min ride to hotel, I heard about mifold here on the thedibb as an alternative to a booster seat. They are approved in UK and US from 4 years, which is a bonus for a seat, as most UK are not offically legal in the US. Rather than lifting a child it is designed to lower the seatbealt to make it safe.
Might be a light alternative for travel, especially with anyone using UBER, but also for getting from the airport to a walmart/target et to buy a more robust chair at less than the rental firms, with no history.

Nice promotional vidio here

Lets hope it lives up to the hipe. John Lewis have then at list £39, but I got mine online for £23. It is small, it is hand luggage and I agree with the keeping one in the glove box for those occasions you need an extra seat. i've previously taken a carseat on all travels, so this will be a new experience.