Orders to Germany!

Not me but my 25 month old godson and his mom! She is single and though she wont do the research for herself trusts me to make his car seat decisions and follows my instructions to a T Well she got her orders yesterday...Germany for 3 years so you know my 1st thought WHAT SEAT TO TAKE?

Ok so he turned 2 in November (dob 11/21/08) he's approx 37 lbs and short, I will try to measure him tomorrow... he is thankfully in town for Christmas (currently stationed in FL, we are in MD) so I have until the 2nd week of Jan to decide. He is currently ff in his Marathon (I believe he's using the next to top slot or maybe there are two slots, again I will check tomorrow). I have a FR80 here that I'd be willing to part with or I could consider something else but it needs to be user friendly...his mom is single so he often rides with "babysitters" and his mom uninstalls/reinstalls his seat a few times/week. What I need is a ff/combination seat that he can FLY to Germany in, will work in a rental until she gets a new car or in various friends cars, will hopefully harness him to booster age/size or until they return to the states. They don't leave until June (he will be 31 months) but I'd like to make the switch now so she can get use to the new seat before they go.

Top contenders are CA65 but I doubt she will re-rf him so not necessary, I just thought it might be light and easy and then I wouldn't have to worry about her boostering him before time, just in case!), GN (the one with lock-offs), EM(just because its so light for travel but wondering if he may hit 50 before he is old enough to booster), FR(80 or 85 whichever is easier).

Oh last point, I will probably remove the lower latch straps on whatever seat because though she normally listens very well, for some reason I can not get through to her that she should not use both the seat belt AND latch, she knows in some cars/positions the latch isn't approved and she can only use the seat belt but IF given the opportunity will use both! OK spam me with ideas and why...we will hopefully get to the baby store next week to try fits.

What base is she coming to?

I would do a Nautilus or Frontier. The rental car may or may not have IsoFix (Latch), they most likely wont have a top tether.

No top tether! huh? good to know...doesnt the GN do well w/o it? Wonder if it would be worth trying to convince her to re-rf?! Um she is AF so one of the AF bases lol not sure will ask in the morning Are you in Germany?

I think she'd like this one http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3980774 but how do I tell if it comes with the lock offs?

Did you link to a Nautilus (the link isn't opening for me for some reason)? If so, only the "Elite" versions have lock-offs.

http://www.toysrus.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3749235

This is the elite...

Top tethers only come in a very very very few cars and usually only Volvo and Mercedes but there are a few others...

We are Army in Germany... I bet she will be near my sisters.

Since she's not leaving until June, take a breath. lol. That's 6 months away and anything can change.
Especially the fact that she's a single parent in the AF with a young child pcsing overseas. Orders change often. Especially if someone wakes up and realizes she has a child and is a single parent.

It is dicey being over here as such to begin with. (Families split up while over here, that's another issue) When presented with options, the Air Force do not want to send a military member in her situation over. But they're iffy and unpredictable. They can even decide that she would be better off unaccompanied and he'd have to remain in the States. That's very rare t hough, from what dh says.

As a matter of course, she'll need someone who can provide full time emergency care who is NOT military and then another individual who takes over for long term guardianship in case of TDY and deployments or evacuation incidences.
IIRC, they cannot be the same person and there needs to be a primary & secondary on each category. A headache.

She's most likely to go to Ramstein AB near Kaiserslautern, or where I"m currently located, Spangdahlem AB in the Eiffel. As a single parent, her best options are Ramstein for support and facilities, so I'm really hoping for her to head there. It's really nice here, but it's primitive. Most people make the drive to Ramstein for shopping. I don't, but I go on the economy.

We're having shut downs going on over at Bitburg Annex, but building new facilities such as the BX is being put off longer to even start.

New rental cars through Sixt (budget) all have Isofix and top tethers. That's the cheapest option unless she wants to rent a wreck style. Hertz is prohibitively expensive since their concession is through Services, not AAFES. But that's here at Spang. Again, Ramstein has more choices for rental offbase than Spang.

(As a mom who is tired of the fast life, I do appreciate living here more in this region than the KMC, but there are drawbacks).

If she has a vehicle, she can ship it over at cost to the military. If she decides on that, have her ship it as early as she is allowed. She can deduct rental car expensives as a moving expense on regular taxes for the following year BEFORE she arrives. If she waits to rent here after arrival, she cannot.

If she has a decent car, I highly recommend she keeps it and ships it here instead of trying to buy in desperation. She can always buy a different car after she settles. She has an option of having 2 vehicles on her registration. It can be very difficult and expensive to buy a car here. Sometimes it's not. Depends on how the uncertain cookie crumbles.
She has a choice of buying from another servicemember/family or paying local economy prices where she pays euros, not dollars. Add about 30% to the price for the exchange difference.

So seriously, even if it's not a great car, ship it. If she decides to sell it, she'll make slightly more money here than stateside.

German spec vehicles do not have locking seatbelts, so that's another consideration in selecting a car seat. She's going to have to use a locking clip or make sure it's a built in lockoff.

hth a little. But relax... There's time. They could change her orders. She's going to have to get clearance for Command Sponsorship for her dependent son and that can change everything.

BTW-- if he has had ANY breathing issues in the past, do NOT let the medical board label them as asthma. It's one of there paranoid points. They'll do it in a heartbeat in the AF. It's vital she deny asthma with all her ability.

I had to fight off a label of asthma for dd and I because we had bronchitis due to TX dust. They wanted to classify us both as asthmatics and t hat would have kept us IN Texas.

good luck to her. It's hard enough moving here as a family. I can't imagine the difficulty & complications for a single military parent. I wish her the best. :2thumbsup: