Need help picking out a second car seat

[Karoline]

I have the Britax Marathon and love it, but am wanting to find something less expensive for a grandparents car. The car seat would only be used a hand full of times a year since the grandparents are not local. My son is 11 months old and has always been on the long side. We had looked at the Cosco Alpha Omega at Costco Warehouse. We liked the option to use it all the way up to 80 lbs as a booster but not sure if that is a reasonable assumption. We were also advised to get the Eddie Bauer 3 in 1, which I'm assuming is the same as the Alpha Omega. Any advise on a reasonably priced seat that we will only be using maybe five times a year for a week or so.

[mtnbaby]

the book recommends the Grace Comfort Sport as a good second or "grandmother's car seat"...however, try it out in her car before buying. We bought it for our child and it could not be tighten securely in the rear-facing position!! It may be fine forward facing. good luck!

[robmab719]

We were leaning toward the Graco Comfortsport for our grandparent car seat, but several people on this board recommended the Cosco Touriva instead. We've only used it once (grandparents just got it installed last week), but so far, we are very happy with it. Installation was a breeze and the seat is very well padded compared to others in that price range.

Maybe some of the other people who have more experience with this seat will also comment. Or you can do a search for Cosco Touriva and read some of the old posts.

Here's the link to the seat at Walmart.com:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...A91365%3A91368

[ppshah]

You may consider just bringing one of your carseats with you. After all you will need it on the plane. You will also need one for future vacations etc. I was also going to have my parents buy and inexpensive carseat but realized soon enough we will need to have one for travel. We have a Graco comfortsport- we initially bought it for DH's car but we hated it. It was impossible to work the straps rear facing. We ended up buying a roundabout for DH's car and keeping the comfortsport for travel. It's much lighter that the Britax seats. You could just bring your Britax along or purchase another seat for travel. I would defiantely look at the Touriva- sounds easier to use than the comforsport.

HTH

[amp]

Our 2nd seat is an Evenflow Vanguard 5 and we like it just fine. We bought it for about $80 (actually I think it was on sale for $70 at the time) at TRU.

[713abc]

After reviewing all the posts on this board I bought the Costco Touriva/Regal Ride (they are the exact same seat - Touriva sold at Walmart, Regal Ride is sold at Target). I bought mine from Target. Walmart didn't have the 5 point harness, only the Over the Head Sheild model (which is not recommended).

I haven't used mine yet, so I can't give a review. Sorry!

FYI, if searching on Walmart.com search by Tourvia not Touriva, there's a typo on their site.

Mom to Max, 05/28/03

[ghs517]

I bought the Cosco Touriva/Regal Ride after reading recommendations here. It was *very* easy to install, and I'm so glad we have it as our second seat for our rarely-used SUV. We only use it maybe twice a month, but it works well and I'm glad we didn't break the bank for it!