HELP, I need to choose car seats for my cars in CANADA and ITALY

Firstly, ds is almost 18 lbs and is presently in a peg bucket so we need to change that now. Dd is 30lbs in an Eddie Bauer Alpha Omega. We need to buy 2 seats, i.e. one in each car here in Canada (ds will be in my car most of the time)

I have a 95 corolla w/out LATCH. Dh has 2004 corolla w/ LATCH. We're planning a trip to Italy in December. Our car there is a 96 FIAT Punto which looks like a Ford Focus hatchback.

I've kinda done my research and I've narrowed it down to the Radian, Scenera, Regalrider, and Intera. From what I understand from lurking here is that the Radian is great if you have LATCH. The Intera is easier to install if the car doesn't have LATCH. The Scenera is cheap and cheerful and light for travel. Cosco Regalrider is also pretty good. Another question I have regards the Intera. In Canada, can I install the Intera without the base???? how about in an airplane seat?

So, which 2 should I chose to :-accomodate my different corollas
-are somewhat easier to travel with on planes, and
-is "easier" to install in a small foreign car

I'm thinking of getting the Intera as ds's main seat in my car and a Scenera for dh's car. Btw, what do you think about the Inspira?

Canadian here, but not a tech.

I have a Regal Ride - and I hate the thing. It is impossible to adjust when RF for us (could just be the way it hits the seat back, I don't know). I HATE it.

The Scenera is an updated version of the Touriva (which is very like the Regal Ride). I haven't tried it, but it looks like it sits up a little higher.

The Radian hasn't been released in Canada yet - supposed to be this month or the next, but we'll see when it actually comes out.

The Intera - yes it can be installed without the base. It's nice and narrow. I didn't notice if it was aircraft approved. It's our next purchase as I need to get a seat that is MUCH thinner than DD's Marathon.


Another suggestion for your 30-lb DD, if she is FF - is the Evenflo Generations seat. That's what my DS is in (he's 38 lbs now). We've been using this seat for around a year now I guess, and are very impressed with it. It converts into a belt-positioning booster at 47 lbs.

Petruzzo,

I'm confused as to which child/children you're getting new seats for. Are both seats for DS? Or are we talking one for each child?

You could use the Eddie Bauer rear facing for him, (unless you're one of the lucky few to have a 35lb rearfacing model) and move DD to a combination seat. (Forward facing/Booster)

With the exception of the Radian (which is available for order from Canadian Tire, I've been waiting 3 1/2 weeks for mine to arrive), all of the seats you've listed have relatively low top harness slots for forward facing use and will probably be outgrown by height before reaching 40 pounds. This means you'd be looking at purchasing combination seats down the road to keep them in harnesses until they've reached the Canadian minimum of 40 pounds for booster use.

As I metioned I'm still waiting for my Radian so I can't comment yet...

The Scenera and the Regal Ride are very similar but if you're choosing one over the other go for the Scenera, it has an additional set of harness slots that the Regal Ride doesn't.

I've installed a couple of Intera's. They can be a challenge to figure out which set up works best for install but provide alot of options(interpret that as confusion). Once you've figured it out they're not bad.

I personally haven't much liked the Inspira. The adjustable head rest can be problematic to get locked into position.

As for combination seat recommendations...I'm using the equivalent of the Evenflo Chase and love it. Kashi mentioned the Evenflo Generations which is a fancier version of the Chase, also a favorite of mine. Graco also makes a line of Car Go seats (Ultra, Platinum, Treasured) with higher weight and harness heights and I'm not saying the Cargo's aren't as good, I just don't have as much experience with them.

HTH's

If that's any help, I have flown with both the Evenflo Chase and the Graco CarGo and it's a lot easier to thread an airplane belt through the CarGo. I have fairly small hands and it was well, kind of hard on the knuckles to to it with the Chase. DH just couldn't do it.

I really like both seats, they're easy to install with both belt and latch and they both have tall top slots and high weight limits in Canada (47 lbs for the Chase and 48 lbs for the Cargo).

Kashi said:

Canadian here, but not a tech.

I have a Regal Ride - and I hate the thing. It is impossible to adjust when RF for us (could just be the way it hits the seat back, I don't know). I HATE it.

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I own an Alpha Omega, a Scenera, and a Touriva. All 3 of them are a little difficult to adjust when RF, but that is just the nature of the beast. Depending on the shape of you vehicle seat it could be easier for you than for me.

I don't know how small you car is in Italy, but my family went to Brazil and we took the Touriva (Regal Ride) since it is the narrowest seat around. We were so thankful that we did. The Scenera is a bit wider and may not have worked in the little cars that we had to use. Also, even though the Scenera has 4 harness slots as opposed to 3 on the Touriva/RR. The top slot is higher on the Touriva/RR. See for yourself. Check out this link:

http://www.carseatdata.org/csnumbers.html

Also, the Intera is not quite as narrow as the Touriva/RR and here in the US the Intera costs 2 or 3 times what the Touriva/RR does. Plus the Touriva/RR is light which makes traveling easy. Has a RF limit of 35#, and is aircraft approved.

HTH