Alternate convertible car seat for occasional use?

[rosiebc]

We just bought a Diono Radian for our 11 month old and love it. But having spent that much $$, we want a less expensive ($100 or less) convertible car seat for my husband's cars and for travel. Ideally it would fold flat like the Radian for easy storage. We want to keep him rear facing as long as possible. Any suggestions?

[rin]

Pretty sure the Diono seats are the only ones that fold flat. We use a Cosco Scenera (we got ours for $35 during a Target sale) for travel/extra car trips. It's not a fabulous seat, and I definitely prefer our Radian, but it works and is cheap. Ours goes up to 40 lb both FF and RF.

[Simon]

How big is your 11 mo? Long torso or long legs? How often does she ride in your Dh's car and how far?

I would base my decision on first on the size of your Dc and second on frequency of use and the type of driving (25mph in neighborhood vs. 65 on freeway).

Unless you travel a lot or internationally, I'm not sure I'd use travel as a factor in choosing the seat. We have a Scenera for an emergency/travel seat, but find we are just as likely to take our Britax seat for the kids' comfort and ease of installation.

[catsnkid]

We had a comfort sport which was great for our recent plane trip and was a great 2nd seat, but it is outgrown quickly for most kids. I wouldn't like a scenera for a second seat that is used frequently, but for infrequent use and travel it is a great deal. We have one for my mom's car. It takes forever to get a good install.
As our comfort sport was getting outgrown and there was a heck of a deal on RA50,on cyber Monday I just got another RA50, which was just over 100 dollars. It is much heavier but it a great seat.

[rosiebc]

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I'll look into the Scenera. To answer your questions, Simon, our son is pretty average sized. We'd mostly be using the carseat for highway driving.

[Simon]

Although we have a Scenera, I'm not sure I'd get another one if I knew it'd be for lots of highway driving. Yes, its super lightweight and it fit out (small) kids for a really long time. BUT, it doesn't have any of the special foam (EPS/EPP) for absorbing crash forces. I'd probably shell out more $$ and get a slightly nicer seat.

Maybe an Evenflo Titan or Tribute. The price difference is so small. Also, I think BRU is having a "trade-in" event in just another week or two so a good opportunity for 25% off a seat that is over $100.

The comparison on this credible Web site is only about 6 months old and gives some good info:
http://carseatblog.com/10598/a-comparison-of-convertible-carseats-priced-under-100/

[jerigirl]

IMO the Sceneras are better for FF. They are sometimes hard to get a good RF install with.