Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

Really that bad? Has anyone actually done it? I know there are a ton of people who just won’t do it for a few reasons, but is there anyone that did and had a positive experience?

We are going to Boca Raton, FL in July and we are really on the fence about what to do.

Re: Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

I've rented from the car rental. They aren't high end like a britax but it's a safe car seat.

Re: Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

I did it once for DD when she was 6 months. We flew to a family wedding and I didn't want to bring the car seat. The seat was ok. I brought a thin swaddling blanket to line it as best I could so she was really not touching the fabric. For the two times she was in the car it was worth it not to lug one more thing on the plane.

Re: Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

We did this when we went on vacation in December. We were bringing the infant seat already & rented the toddler seat.


You can call the rental company and ask them what car seats they use. Thats what I did, they told me what the name was and I looked it up online.

It was a cosco seat, all plastic with a flimsy cover. Nothing great. I had hoped for a little better quality. In person I was disappointed with the seat.

It saves you from luggin that thing around. They wont install the seat for you though, so you have to know how to do it.

Re: Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

Thank you

Re: Is getting a Car Seat at the Rental place..

I haven't done it and don't plan on doing it either. We bought an inexpensive Cosco Scenera seat as our backup/travel seat and use that when we travel. It's very light weight (unlike our Britax lol) and we hang it off the stroller so it's not really that much more to carry.

The thing is that you don't know the true condition of the seats - I'm not talking about how clean/dirty they are, but the actual plastic underneath. And the straps. A previous rental customer could have tried to clean the straps with a harsh cleaner (to get out food or vomit, etc) and that can degrade the integrity of the straps, making them weaker. Or even an employee at the car rental company could do the same - most people don't realize you can't use household cleaners to clean them.

Also like someone mentioned, you have to install the seats on your own. Which can be a huge pain in the rear - does anyone know, do they provide you with the carseat manual? Otherwise, it can be tricky to install certain seats. Our Cosco Scenera for example, we installed it a few times in our car at home before we took it on our trips. We had to know how to install it quickly into the cabs that we took from home to the airport and airport back home here in NY, and how to install in the car rental when we got there.