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Original poster

do you take your own car seat when hiring a car overseas?

21 replies

Tutter · 18/08/2006 11:22

sorry, have posted this before but only heard from one or two people - there must be others who have advice for me...?

am hiring a car in france next week and have booked a car seat (with avis). a couple of friends have warned me that they've heard bad things about car seats abroad, and that they take their own.

but ours is mahoosive. surely a company like avis would be ok...?

OP posts:

CountTo10 · 18/08/2006 11:25

We hired a car last year in majorca with a car seat and it was identical to our own at home!! I think they are bound by euro regulations to conform to the same standards car seats in the uk? We certainly had no issues with our carseats - perhaps you could contact Avis to find out what make they use?

Eowyn · 18/08/2006 11:26

we're in same position, someone has told us they are v expensive to hire & we might as well use a cushion or not bother (but dd is a tall 6 year old so not too worrying) .. but I don't know anything much otherwise I'm afraid.

iota · 18/08/2006 11:27

A friend who went to Portugal recently said that the car seat hire cost as much as it would to buy one

Original poster

Tutter · 18/08/2006 11:30

we've paid €53 for an additional driver and a car seat, so it's not as much as that

OP posts:

thewomanwhothoughtshewasahat · 18/08/2006 11:45

can't you phone and ask? We had a bad experience in the US where the only thing they had was a non-reclinable toddlers seat - dd was 8 months old.

Original poster

Tutter · 18/08/2006 12:09

twwtswah - i have and the french lady said "eeet will be ok" and sounded confused by my concern

so that's ok then

OP posts:

puffling · 18/08/2006 12:10

It's a gamble, people have ok and bad experiences. We took our own and had no problem as you don't spend any time lugging it around. It goes straight on the trolley and then is checked in. However, we didn't have a big seat. I think on balance, you're likely to get an ok seat and if it's not ok ask for another.

Medulla · 18/08/2006 12:13

We hired one in Gran Canaria - never again! It was a britax but really old and tatty. Now take my car seats whenever travelling overseas and that is quite frequently.

Bugsy2 · 18/08/2006 12:47

Always hire, never had a problem. They are often a bit yukky looking, but the seats I've been given have always been Britax.

littlerach · 18/08/2006 13:04

We took our car seat to spain just last month as we's heard the same.
It was fine to take, absolutely no problem with it in the hold, no damage or anything.

merryberry · 18/08/2006 14:09

We tok a biggy to Slovenia last week, maxi cosi tobi. really was no hassle just trolleying it through to checkin, used a large old weekend bag to keep it in on the flights, and our walking boots in. glad we did, the ons offer were ropey.

TheBlonde · 18/08/2006 14:15

We always take our own seat.
In Mallorca this summer the ones at the hire place looked at least 10 years old.
In Sweden you are expected to take your own seat

Car hire seems to really vary from place to place to the seat situation is probably similar.

BonyM · 18/08/2006 14:19

We hired a car and baby seat from Avis in April - seat was fine - fairly basic but did the job and looked safe enough (although I know looks are no guarantee of anything!).

waggledancer · 18/08/2006 14:36

We hired in Portugal this year and were very disappointed. Seat was basic and we were given no help to fit it, the car hire reps grasp of english vanished after she had the payment. Would always take our own in future. Check your airlines policy, we could have taken up to 10kg of buggy and seat, and excess baggage for a couple of kilos is less than hiring fees

clairemow · 18/08/2006 14:41

We hired a car in France in March through Europcar (v. cheap...), and while the car seat was fine once we'd worked it out (45 mins and lots of blue air later...), the hire company flatly refused to assist us in fitting it, saying their insurance wouldn't cover it (eh?! ).

Mind you, in Lanzarote when DS was 9 months, we had a fab car seat and it was all fitted for us etc.

wheelybug · 18/08/2006 14:54

We have hired them in two places - france and spain with Hertz at both times. In france it was fine, s eat was available,not the best but fitted ok.

Earlier this year we went to spain with a group and needed 5 car seats (2 boosters and 3 9kg+). They had the boosters but only 2 of the others, and one had to have the straps knotted to make it work so obviously not particularly safe. We had booked them about 3 months in advance. When we quesitoned/argued this they couldn't care less. One of our party ended up with their dd on their lap but we got stopped by the police and fined 110 euros. It is now illegal in most parts of europe NOT to have a car seat (even if no seatbelts fitted).

I'd definitely think about taking a car seat with us next time due to this experience.

BonyM · 18/08/2006 14:54

Oh - should have said - Avis had the seat already fitted securely in the car and when we had problems getting the harness tightened sufficiently they were very happy to help us out.

scotlou · 18/08/2006 14:58

Hired with Avis in Canada and US in June. Seats OK - and the US office fitted them for us.
Does work out expensive though - about USD 8 per seat per day.

alison222 · 18/08/2006 15:03

We have had mixed experiences. In France we had 3 or 4 car seats before we found one that fitted properly. The first one had bits broken off it so you couldn't tighten it properly. The woman at the car hire desk suggested we drove into the nearest town and bought one how were we going to get there with 5 mth ds? Got it sorted eventually.
Spain - local hire co that DH's aunt booked for us - they fitted seat and it was perfect.
Rhodes - nightmare - they delivered car to hotel with no seat. we had to drive to car hire place to get one and then tried lots of seats that didn't fit the car properly. ended up with a different car and different seat - oh and a lot of staff who got a leson in what a properly fitted seat looks like.

Since then we have always taken our own as they are now high backed boosers that dit any car so we don't need to worry if the seat will fit the particular car.

newkid · 11/09/2006 16:42

Have just hired from Hertz in Ireland. Seat when fitted had lots of sideways movement and the child restraint wouldn't tighten. They seemed oblivious to our concerns. They refused to fit it (insurance again) and we ended up borrowing one from family (if this hadn't been an option we would have bought a new one). I think the hire company's attitude was appalling. Seats need to be fitted properly and to be secure or you may as well not use them. Will be taking a seat with us to Spain later this month.

HRHQueenOfQuotes · 11/09/2006 16:48

How do you know that you're own car seat will still be fit for use after it's been thrown around in the hold/luggage handling bit???

The state bags come out with I just can't see how a car seat wouldn't be damaged.....hence the reason we never took either of the car seats to Zimbabwe with us.

We should have been able to hire one for DS2 - but when we got their the few car seats that the car hire place did have (Europcar) hadn't been returned with the vehicles..........so were spent the entire holiday carseatless for them both. I'm not proud of it - and wouldn't even have got in the car here - but we had no choice.

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