Question Please Recommend a Convertable Carseat for both air & road travel?

Hi,

We are going on a trip with my 10 month old where we will fly round trip & drive in rental cars & relative's cars extensively. From what I have seen on the forums, people seem to recommend traveling with a Coccoro or a Scenera rear facing on a plane. Would you still recommend these seats given that we would also be driving quite a bit on this trip?

I like to the lighter weight of the Scenera v.s the Boulevard for travel, but I'm concerned about the total saftey of the Serena. I know all of these seats have passed the government tests. But in this day in age is it really sensible to drive around with your child in a car seat that does not have any EAP foam?

I wouldn't mind paying the price of the Coccoro, since we have not yet purchased a convertible seat for "daddy's car" and it could potentially do dual duty. However, because of the flipping & ease of install issues, I'm not sure its the best choice for moving back & forth between multiple cars on this trip. Additionally, its low weight limits mean that we would be replacing the "Daddy car seat" sooner than would really be ideal or cost effective.

So what do you advise. Do we bite the bullet and travel with the Boulevard? Is the Scenera "safe enough" for one week of use?

Does my dream car seat exist??? Is there a car seat out there that would be:
1) lighter than the Boulevard.
2) able fit rear facing on a plane.
3) easy to install in a variety of cars.
4) "safe enough" for vacation road travel & regular use in our second car?

While we are generally frugal, we don't mind spending on safety.

Stats ;-) -
My son is 10 months old & about 30.5 inches tall & about 20.5 lbs.
My husband's car is a 2006 Chrysler 300 with a large back seat. (his bachelor, "I'm a successful businessman" car )
Our infant seat was a Chicco Key Fit 30 - which according to the manual (and the way the harness straps we starting to pinch him) he has outgrown by height.

Thanks so much for your help!

-Ra

Go see which seat you prefer. That said, I have no issues with the Scenera would not hesitate to use it for my own child if I needed to do so. In fact, my daughter's primary seat when she was 2-ish was the Touriva, the precursor to the Scenera.

The Scenera does not have EPS or EPP foam, but as that's not required to pass testing, yes, it's perfectly safe. It saves lives daily, I'm sure.

That said, our travel seat is a Combi Coccoro. You can tether it rear facing as of last week, so it cannot flip anymore. You'll just need to get a D ring, and I don't know that I'd deal with tethering it while traveling. Especially going from car to car. It's not tethered right now in my husband's car.

We do what you're thinking. Laine rides in a True Fit Premier as her daily seat in my car. In my husband's car, and what we use for travel, she's in a Coccoro.

We used to travel with Piper's Wizard, the precursor to the Boulevard. It was completely doable, especially rear facing.

Wendy

I've traveled with our boulevard and it's not a big deal (IMO). ANY seat is going to be big and awkward to lug around, kwim? I've strapped it to a stroller (using bungee cords) and used a stroller to transport all our carry-ons, diaper bag, etc through the airport, so it's not like you're actually carrying it all that often. The huge advantage is that it can be counted on to be an easy installation in almost every car. (And it does fit RF on an airplane btw.)

If you're really set on getting a lighter seat for travel, I'd consider the evenflo tribute. A little pricier than the scenera, but it has EPS foam, is often easier to install (according to Jools who has more experience than I do!), and might last your kiddo longer than the scenera.

Thanks so much for your advice! It's really appreciated

Am I correct, that the coccoro is not a good choice for extended rear facing?

No, it's not. But it's a good secondary seat.

To give you an idea, here are two little kids in the CCO. Laine is 18 months and 30% for height, and the little guy is five months and about 10% for height (I think).

http://www.car-seat.org/showthread.php?t=163445

Laine will make it to two easily, likely 2.5 years old in it. T3 (little guy) will make it to three if he doesn't shoot up at some point. But they're both small kids. Two to two and a half is more normal I think.

Wendy