Green Room: The Truth of Cars and Child Seats — Consumer Reports #room #to #rent

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It is Ideal to bring your own seat when traveling with children

It is often feasible to secure a child seat from the agency for your child, when renting a car, but is it a great idea?

Consumer Reports’ child passenger safety technicians found the quality of inventory was radically different between agencies and assessed the kid seats offered for lease at a couple rental car agencies. (Find out how to save on auto rentals .)

At one agency, the kid seats were neatly stored in plastic bags that were clear and every seat had its owner’s manual. This was encouraging to see, because the instructions are crucial to guarantee the seat is installed.

In contrast to the neatly stored child seats at the very first agency, the kid seats at a second firm were stored outside in a shed. They were not in plastic bags, and the majority of them were overlooking their owner’s manuals. Many of the seats were not appropriate for use because of broken parts, missing tags, infant seat carriers separated from their bases, or they were died (see when to retire a car seat ). When we inquired as to whether these were really the seats for lease, we were told there were fresh seats available, although we didn’t research people.

Prices for renting a seat averaged about $10 a day. That can accumulate, approaching the purchase price of a new seat if you are planning to be for much longer than a few days at your destination.

In any situation, understanding which seat is suitable for your kid to work with and being familiar with there is a seat installed and familiarizing yourself with the specifics of its instructions can be perplexing. The rental agency’s employees, may not be able to give much guidance and though well-intentioned, are not very likely to have been educated in child passenger safety. When you combine that with the price and the capacity for quality of seats at a rental agencies, it leads us to recommend bringing your child’s car seat when travel plans include a rental car. It may be helpful to buy an excess set of car seats only which means you do not risk your daily chair. Journey seats could be chosen for ease of price and carrying, in addition to safety. (As always, check our car seat buying guide and Ratings. There are good-performing seats at a broad array of prices.)

Most airlines allow car seats to be gate and they can often be picked up directly on the jet way after landing limiting damage from bag handling.

Another alternative which you may not have considered, but that some seasoned travelers swear by, is to order a seat before your trip and have it shipped to your friend or relative who can either deliver it to the airport for you to use in a rental car, or have it installed in their own vehicle to pick you and your kid up from the airport. This option requires some advanced planning to allow for choosing, shipping and familiarize yourself with the new seat; luckily most child restraint makers have even and owner’s manuals installation videos which can be reviewed ahead of time. This option has the added advantage of eliminating the risk that your regular vehicle seat is going to be damaged during transport or luggage handling.

Whichever strategy works best suited to your requirements, we think it is ideal to use your own seat as opposed to putting yourself (and your child’s safety) at the winner of the vehicle rental agency.

For much more on driving with children. See our special section.

—Michelle Tsai Podlaha