Two Convertible Car Seats?

[HHCs Mom]

I am about to purchase a convertible seat for DS who is 3 months and has outgrown his SnugRide. Do I *really* need to get a seat for my car and DH's car?? I am getting a Marathon for my car since DS is so tall and I'm afraid he'd outgrow the RA too quickly, but $500 for 2 seats is expensive! I had thought about getting the Triumph for DH's car, but am afraid DS would outgrow that one too quickly. We have an extra base in DH's car for the SnugRide and we've used it *maybe* 2-3 times in the 3 months.

Anyone get by with just ONE carseat and live to tell about it? :-) Are there any major disadvantages other than having to take the same car all the time when DS is with us? We never take DH's car when we go out, always mine.

Thanks!
Kim

[Momof3Labs]

Personally, I think that you would be fine with a Marathon in your one car, but I would get a second very inexpensive seat to leave installed in Dad's car. That way, if there is ever an emergency, he has the seat. The cheap (but still good ones) are only about $50, and that is cheap insurance, IMO.

[HHCs Mom]

Which ones are good and cheap (i.e. $50)? If we could find one that cheap to put in DH's car, that would be great! It would get used so infrequently that it would be worth $50, but not $150 or $200. That is the only drawback that we can see --- not having an emergency backup when needed.

Kim

[justlearning]

We also only bought one Marathon and bought a $50 carseat to put in DH's vehicle and to use for traveling. (From what I've heard, a cheaper car seat weighs less than a Marathon and isn't as cumbersome when flying on a plane.) The one that we bought was recommended on here by the car seat techs and is a Regal Ride, which is also known as or is similar to a Costco Touriva, I believe. (Someone please correct me if I'm wrong with these names.) We bought our Regal Ride at Target.

I can't personally recommend this carseat yet because, even though we bought ours months ago, DH hasn't gotten around to installing it yet in his truck. We haven't really had a need for it because we use my minivan whenever we have DS with us, or DH takes the minivan when traveling with DS by himself. Lately, though, we've decided that it would be nice to have the carseat in DH's truck because his vehicle is much older than our new Sienna and I'd like to have the option of taking it when I think there's a possibility of our minivan getting damaged (e.g., during hail storms, tight parking events, etc.). So, installing the carseat is on DH's to-do list for this weekend.

[JElaineB]

The Cosco Touriva (Walmart) is less than $40. I bought it for $49 a couple of months ago and as a second car seat it is great for that purpose. I think my local Walmart had it a couple dollars less than the website, but I could be wrong.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.gsp?cat=91365&dept=5427&product_id=2233776&path=0%3A5427%3A91365%3A91368

The Cosco Real Ride (Target) is the same shell with a different cover. It is on sale at Target for $38.00 right now.

http://www.target.com/gp/detail.html/sr=2-1/qid=1089550652/ref=sr_2_1/601-1693301-9476115?%5Fencoding=UTF8&asin=B00009EBY3

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

[amp]

We went for about 6 mths with just the MA in my car, but ended up getting an Evenflo Triumph for DH's car, so that when we did decide to take his, for whatever reason, it wouldn't mean uninstalling the MA and reinstalling it everytime. It's just easier this way. We bought it during a sale at TRU and paid about $75 with tax for it.