elinorryves

just got an e mail from hire car company saying it would be £5 day for hire of child seat! is it not cheaper to buy one or is there anywhere else to hire? we want to hire a car for 2 weeks but then we are public transport etc for the rest so did not want the hassle of taking ours.

iaink

You can get a booster in Canada for like $40 (plus tax) or less. Fancier ones are perhaps $70

A five point harness strap in for smaller kids is going to be closer to $100

The hassle is going to the trouble of getting one first thing on your trip over, and making that first trip from the airport without one.

elinorryves

mmmm yes, oh well thanks anyway

minihaha

Hi. Not sure where you are going to but you can try looking for a relocation /realtor who does airport pick up. They would have the child booster seats. I only know the ones around the Calgary area.

This might help you out before you go out and buy one yourselves.Or just bring your own from the UK as long as it meets the Canadian safety specs. Il have a google and find the right makes and stuff to look for on the label.

It has been mentioned before on here so maybe a search will throw it up.

Hope that helps, mrs minihaha

bazzz

Hah. Valley Girl.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valley_girl#Sociolect

ann m

Not relevant to Canada - but possibly relevant to anyone 'generally' reading this thread !!

I hired a car from Enterprise at Heathrow the other week. They no longer hire out booster seats for kids, My ghast was flabbered!

Long debate with the company - booking made via internet and it never occured to me that they would not have seats (usual crap about liability, etc). So they were basically 'making' me drive away from their lot and break the law. The locations of the rental places at Heathrow are not exactly conducive (sp? doesn't look right) to popping into ToysRUs to buy a cheapy seat for the holiday.

So - moral of the story - check with a real life person at time of booking!

One strongly worded letter winging it's way as we speak .... luckily, I was ableto borrow back the one we gave to a brother before we left (but I still drove from the airport to their house 'illegally', cough, cough).

destinationnovascotia

My experience of car hire companies is that the child seats are often inappropriate and generally in poor condition. You can take your own from the UK if it is an approved model for the provice you are visiting. I don't know about first stage car seats but my booster seat at home is a graco and is approved for use in NS.

iaink

Even if its not locally "approved" I wouldnt worry about it. As long as it can be attached safely with the seat belt and top tether it should be OK...I just wouldnt count on the integral bottom straps (LATCH system over here) being compatible.

The airlines are supposed to check it meets their national standard before allowing it to be used on the plane...thats going to be more of an issue than using a UK seat in a Canadian car, no one is likely to care unless you have an accident worthy of an investigation...and in those circumstances at least you had a seat/ booster.

Some minivans have a built in (integrated into the rear seat) 5 point seat, so if you can hire one of them it might be a non issue.

The pontiac montana is one that springs to mind, and I think the chrysler ones might have something similar, but I dont know if its a standard feature or not...might be worth checking out anyway.

Oakvillian

We brought over a UK child seat - actually we brought two, one is a rear-facing infant one, part of a Mothercare-brand "travel system" with a buggy etc, the other is a Maxi Cosi Priori or something, which had the Isofix lower anchorage system.

Isofix is the ISO 13216 standard for universal attachment of Stage 1 child seats, which is known as LATCH in the US and Canada - as far as I was able to decipher, the two systems are exactly the same for the lower anchorage, and certainly were compatible in our case. Our Isofix seat didn't have an upper tether (although, curiously, the seat chassis had the anchorage points for one), so I bought one from a baby safety store and installed it. We also bought and installed a chest latch (that clips the shoulder straps together above the 5-point buckle) as this is a CSA requirement. Granted, the seat doesn't have a CSA marking on it, but I am completely comfortable in entrusting the wellbeing of my children to it, as it conforms to both EU norms and the international standards specification.

The Mothercare stage 0 seat actually clipped in to a standard Graco seat base. Our existing UK one didn't have Isofix mountings, so we bought a new base from Sears (with CSA stamp) and used that with the existing seat.

Incidentally, several Canadians commented on the Mothercare travel system and wanted to know where we got it, as it was rather lighter, easier to put up and down, and more manouevreable than Canadian equivalents

iaink

Good to know. I think the bigger problem is that if you are flying was a canadian carrier (Air Canada, Transat etc) they technically require the appropriate CMVSS ot FMVSS approval marking to allow it on the plane, and might even check for it if they are having a bad day...so you might (but probably wont) have a hard time getting it onto the plane over, which leaves you at the airport trying to find somewhere to leave your seat

http://www.airtransat.ca/en/8_2.asp

http://www.aircanada.com/en/travelin...ant-child.html

Assuming you can get it here without problems, no one here locally is going to care, and as you say, canadian standards and UK standards will both protect your child.

Oakvillian

Hadn't thought about the airlines... our stage 0 stuff was in the container (baby didn't arrive til after we did!) and we checked the other one into the hold, as #1 son had just turned 3 and would have complained about being strapped into a car seat for the duration of the flight. We flew BA so prob. wouldn't have had any issues if we'd needed the seat on the flight, neither did we have any issues with excess baggage for checking it in.

elinorryves

thanks, that is really helpfull. was not also sure that it was free to take seats and buggies etc. we are flying transat, and have a britax seat, cant remember off hand the model but it is 9m +

Stu-pot

We went in 2004, my two were 4 & 2 we took our own seats and never had any problems, in fact the hire car had them in as well. Now we're planning to go back in May this year, the girls use the booster seats that raise them up enough to use the seat belt over here ( large block of polystrene covered with material) we will take these with us when we go

bootlecat

All the airlines reserve the right to charge extra for buggies and car seats. Usually if you are with one of the big ones they accept that you can swap one of your childs two checked bag allowance for a car seat or similar.

In fact having done the journey many times, I've never had an issue with BA or Air Canada, even when me, my wife and daughter have all been at max on bag weight, the car seat and buggy just got thrown in as well.

Did it on transat once, and got charged, but talked them out of it. Simple concept really book the cheap tickets and you get less leeway for extras...

I was told once that if you phone the airline and let them know you'll need to take this stuff they note it on file and its easier to get it taken free. Something to do with capacity and load planning