Traveling with kids is tough enough, what with all the stuff you need to remember to bring with you—from blankie to teddy to the portable DVD player—without having to worry about what you're going to do for a car seat when you finally arrive at your destination and need to pick up your rental car.
Obviously, if you can bring your own car seat with you, that may be the easiest, but if it's too cumbersome, here are some quick survival tips:
• Check for deals on car seat rentals through discount programs. I recently got a free rental on my car seat ($86 value) when I used my AAA membership to rent through Hertz, with whom they had a partnership.
• Request a similar seat to the one you already own. You don't always have a choice of what seat you get but obviously it makes life a lot easier if you already know where those confusing straps and buckles go.
• Print out a list of recently recalled seats from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Rental-car companies—just like the rest of us—don't always hear about recalls. If you have a list with you, you can check it against the model number of the seat you get from the rental place.
How to install a car seat
OK, now that you have your car seat, how do you install it? The first time I rented a car with a car seat, I felt completely daunted since I'd had my seat at home installed by a certified Child Passenger Safety Technician, and I literally NEVER took it out of the car for fear I wouldn't know how to put it back in.
Step one: Read the owner's manual of the rental car itself under "Child Restraint Systems" so you know where the Lower Anchors and Tethers for Children (known as LATCH) installation attachments are located (although if you are able to get a better fit with the vehicle seat belt, you should use that instead).
These attachments include a hook for the top tether on forward facing seats, which our tests have consistently shown is critical for preventing the child from moving forward in a crash.
Step two: Familiarize yourself with the owner's manual of the seat you get, so you know how to secure your child.
Step three: Make sure the seat is installed snugly in the car and your child is installed snugly in the seat itself, so neither has much room to wiggle around.
This video from Consumer Reports should help. Happy trails!
