ERF in taxis / hire cars / on the train

[Spindelina]

I often see comments like "I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't ERF".

My reason is that we don't own a car. DD's group 1 seat (Kiddy) is for taxis, hire cars and lifts. When I bought it a few years ago, I thought it was the best option to fit pretty much any car quickly - I can't imagine myself faffing about with the passenger seat in a taxi to get the seat in contact, for example. The Kiddy seat is also light enough to take on the train and use a taxi at our destination, which is safer than driving all the way.

Would those of you have have ERF seats disagree with me? If there's an ERF seat that fits the bill, I might consider getting it.

I think when people make comments like that, I think they mean in general when it comes to parents owning cars including hire cars if your using it for the day or week etc. Obviously, buses/taxis/trains etc are different because it's a massive hassle for one quick/short trip or if you're having to take it in and out and depending on which seat you'd invest in, it would take more time to install it than it would to get to the destination. Parents choice not to in these circumstances for convenience.

Yeah, that's kind of what I thought when I bought the Kiddy seat. But rather than jump on someone in a different thread, I thought I'd start my own just to check things haven't moved on! I see people saying that ERF are quick and easy to fit, but I'm not sure what the definition of quick and easy is.

I also wonder about the hire car for the week thing. In that case, we'd have the time to fit it, but still very little control over which make/model of car we get. I see so many threads on here saying "will fit in ", whereas our Kiddy seat just fits in everything with seat belts.

I ERF and our Cybex Sirona's are isofix and took less than a minute to install, and our 2 seat belt ones (cybex pallas & joie steadi) took less than 2 minutes, as we watched the demonstration video on youtube which is better than the silly manual they give you

So I guess it depends on the seat you buy. You'd want the safest seat anyway whether it's FF or RF so I'm assuming people would research which cars it'd fit/how to install while they're choosing one... and most sites/brands have a car seat fit finder.

As for not having much choice in which car you hire, does it really matter or that important? As long as a car gets me to A to B, I'm not really fussed on make or model

Well, quite. I can pretty much rely on the car getting from A to B, but do all hire cars have isofix? I genuinely have no idea. I certainly couldn't rely on it for a taxi, but maybe we should own two car seats? Seems a bit overkill for a toddler who can go several months without being in a car!

Do the Pallas and Steadi fit in pretty much anything? It sounds like they are quicker to fit than I had imagined - though I guess still too bulky to take on the train.

Probably not. But almost all models have two isofix on the rear outer seats. although isofix seats will not fit in every car with Isofix points.

If you have an isofix car seat, then you need a car with isofix or a seat that installs with both, or just a car (doesn't matter if it has isofix) to fit the car belt seat.

No idea, I only checked to see if they fit in mine (peugeot Tepee) and DH's car(Jaguar XJ), and they do, easily. They are quite bulky. We've had no need for hire cars...

The Cybex Pallas seat says; "This child seat is approved for universal use and can be used on all vehicle seats with standard 3-point belt."