To buy or rent a carseat

[nznat]

We'll be travelling to Europe with our almost 3 yr old. We will need a carseat in France but this is halfway through our trip so we won't be bringing our own from home. The cost of hiring a carseat would be about the same as buying one, so it would be great to just buy one and take home. Does anyone know if there are good places to buy carseats (in person or online) in Portugal, Lisbon specifically - where we will be for a week before we fly to france?
Any feedback about carseats from rental companies in France would be appreciated. We booked with Sixt and they won't tell us the carseat type. Thanks!

Take your own - unless you find some kind of specialist car seat hire company, the car hire companies will just give you whatever they have to hand, often dirty, age inappropriate, very old, and cheap brands. Speaking from experience. It's a pain to take your own but at least you know it's safe and correct for your child.

I bought a second hand Britax romer for £20 (v good condition) and a car seat bag. You can take one on the plane with most airlines for free. I was sick of paying for really crappy car seats from car rentals in Europe ! This works out much better in terms of money and safety. A lot of what they give you for 3+ is essentially just a high backed booster.

I haven’t done a deep safety dive but how about https://womengifts.co.uk/products/child-protection-car-cushion-seat?variant=49712194027786&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAAqba2j4rIkUGfC9xM3RYHZ8llVEtR&gclid=Cj0KCQjwiOy1BhDCARIsADGvQnAQiACCDJRguLok4TNfxEp6sLBApLwC4Q65ngoinQdsQpT1KAubC5AaAo75EALw_wcB (no affiliation)

Please don't buy this product. It is almost certainly illegal. Even if it is not, it will not be safe. Unfortunately there is no easy fix when travelling abroad with young children. The best thing is to take your own or buy new there. I have heard of some specialist hire companies which look like they know their stuff and can be trusted, but these are few and far between.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/car-seats-children-illegal-amazon-ebay-a8782181.html

Re booking through the rental company you get the choice of baby (infant carrier), toddler (harnessed seat) or child (booster). So it’ll be age appropriate and legal so definitely better than that thing posted above that I don’t think would even qualify as a car seat. We booked toddler in France got given a forward facing harnessed seat, but clean and in good condition. However, this was 5 years ago so hopefully standards have improved a bit since and you can get rear facing now. But I wouldn’t and haven’t rented again. If for no other reason than it’s a complete rip off! Joie seats are good value for money, decent on safety so maybe start there and I’d maybe look at getting one that can be a harness now but can later convert to a booster, that way you know you’ll get use out of it for whatever trips come up in the future.