Cheap carseat option?

[holly116]

Hi there! @villianv has been kind enough to help me out with some of my questions over on MMM. I thought I'd pose this one to all of you to see if anyone has a suggestion.

We're traveling to Germany soon and borrowing an older BMW to use from a good friend. We're bringing our 21 lb, 30 inch, 10 month old and need a rear facing convertible car seat. We're still checking to see if DH can borrow a non-expired, safe seat from a coworker, but if not, I'm leaning towards buying a seat in Germany.

DH will be arriving a week before I travel with the baby so he'll have time to track down a seat and installing it before picking us up at the airport.

Any ideas on a relatively affordable option? DH found some new options on ebay.de but I was hoping someone has a tried and true find to suggest like the Walmart cosco here in the states.

[origami]

Why not gate check your current seat (or a cheap one bought [eta: in the US] for this trip)?

[newgirl412]

Your DH might be hard pressed to find a rear facing seat that will fit your baby. The only European country I know of that rear faces past a year is Sweden. Good luck with your travels though!

[holly116]

Thanks for responding!

I'd rather buy a cheap seat in Germany and leave it for a friend to use in grandmas car or whatever than rely on Air Berlin to take care of our $$$ Britax seats. The other option is to buys $39 Walmart cosco seat here and bring it just for this trip. My DH is traveling a week before me and then I'm meeting him there with the baby. I'd prefer to not have to deal with a 10 month old, diaper bag, stroller, checked bag, carry on, AND car seat on my own. But if I send him with a seat and no child, I'm assuming it would count again this baggage allowance, which is a single bag, so the amount of money paid to check an extra piece hardly seems worth it.

The baby is under a year still. So should be rear facing even by the more relaxed standards, right? I guess I'm just really hoping there's a German equivalent to that $39 Walmart seat here in the states! It would make it easier but I might be hoping for something that doesn't exist lol.

[newgirl412]

If your borrowing a car that was made by European standards you might be best to borrow a seat from the coworker over there as American seats dont always fit in European cars. And I googled for German child restraint laws and they can FF at 9 months.

[Cicero]

You're probably better off buying a German seat. US car seats aren't legal in the EU. I don't know what the likelihood of an issue or what would happen if you're caught but it's something to keep in mind.

I'm pretty sure mouseinlux ERFs in Luxembourg.

[holly116]

I'm not FF my little guy at 10 months regardless of what's allowed in Germany/Switzerland. I'm worried about being as safe as we can be going 100 mph+ on the autobahn.

I'm sure there has to be something we can buy that will allow us to rear face a 20 lb baby, right?

[pittpurple]

I would just go on amazon for whatever country you're visiting and see what you can find. My car seat here in the uk is meant to rf until 10 kilos and then ff and that's pretty standard. My friend has an extended rf carseat and it was around £300 and not sold in any standard shops.

If you're borrowing a seat, you'll need to make sure it fits in the car, we didn't own a car until recently so we had to ff a couple times early on as the backseats of the cars we were in were tiny and you couldn't fit the seat backwards.

I am about to buy our 3rd car seat (the $39 one from Walmart actually) to use in the states since I can't use my British one there. As far as I understand, outside any safety issues, you nullify your insurance by using an unapproved car seat.

[mouseinlux]

The safest thing is to use your car seat on the flight but if you don't have a seat for her that's not possible.
Seats over here generally start at around 50€ but I personally wouldn't put my child in those seats. They aren't made very well and have, in a few instances failed without an accident occurring. Here you pay for what you get seat wise. We also don't have many "convertible seat" there are infant seats, "convertible seats" (group 0+/1) which will generally RF to 13kilo then will need to be turned FF and group 1 seats which can Be RF but most FF.
There are a few exceptions but these are more expensive (over 100€).
If you can't take your seat with you I'd pick up a cosco seat, bubble wrap it and send it with your husband (but remember it will count towards his baggage allowance as he's not got a baby with him). Seat belts in the EU do not lock so you need to bring a locking clip, I'd practice installing it with the locking clip a few times at home & bring a towel to make sure you can get it properly reclined.

[irish]

Jul 13, 2014 10:43:13 GMT -5 Maud said:

Ugh, this makes me anxious! I'm taking my DS home to Ireland two days after he turns one and we're borrowing a convertible seat from my cousin. I never though to ask if it could RF.

irish are all toddler car seats FF in Ireland?

Sorry I didn't see this until now...
Yes, pretty much all the toddler seats are FF. As someone else said there are convertible seats but they can't rf for as long as the US ones seem to.

It's crazy that dd1 is in a group 1 seat that she is just about grown out of (height not weight) at not even 3yrs that she has been in since she was 10/11 months. But the thought of putting dd2 in the same seat anytime soon scares me. But she's fast getting to the top of her infant seat...

I did look into getting a different convertible one recently but they were €400+ I think and needed to have an Isofix point in the car, which we don't have. I'll look that seat up for you just as an alternative.

[irish]

Maud

tonykealys.com/car-seats/extended-rear-facing.html

One of the Britax ones comes in at €300. I seriously would have gotten this for dd1 if it had been around then.

[Cicero]

Jul 13, 2014 13:33:22 GMT -5 mouseinlux said:

The safest thing is to use your car seat on the flight but if you don't have a seat for her that's not possible.
Seats over here generally start at around 50€ but I personally wouldn't put my child in those seats. They aren't made very well and have, in a few instances failed without an accident occurring. Here you pay for what you get seat wise. We also don't have many "convertible seat" there are infant seats, "convertible seats" (group 0+/1) which will generally RF to 13kilo then will need to be turned FF and group 1 seats which can Be RF but most FF.
There are a few exceptions but these are more expensive (over 100€).
If you can't take your seat with you I'd pick up a cosco seat, bubble wrap it and send it with your husband (but remember it will count towards his baggage allowance as he's not got a baby with him). Seat belts in the EU do not lock so you need to bring a locking clip, I'd practice installing it with the locking clip a few times at home & bring a towel to make sure you can get it properly reclined.

I never realized that the seat belts don't lock. I wonder if that is something we will have to get retrofitted to our car when we move back and ship it over.

[irish]

Jul 14, 2014 22:43:08 GMT -5 Maud said:

Jul 14, 2014 16:17:33 GMT -5 irish said:

Maud

tonykealys.com/car-seats/extended-rear-facing.html

One of the Britax ones comes in at €300. I seriously would have gotten this for dd1 if it had been around then.

Thanks. We're only home for a month and I'm pretty sure my parents cars don't have isofix anyway

This is kind of making me hyperventilate. We're going to Kerry for a week. I think I might take J on the train. 

The britax max-way isn't isofix and the age range is up to 6years... And can go in middle seat in a lot of cars.

[irish]

Enjoy Kerry! Don't forget you can book seats on the train now and keep an eye on the prices online from now on to get the best price.

Jealous...

[mouseinlux]

Irish, the two way elite doesn't need ISOFIX, will last until close to 6 if not longer and required no ISOFIX (ISOFIX only is for use until a child is 18kili while harnessed).