Inexpensive car seat option for Grandama?

[Mama_K]

My mom is thinking of getting a car seat for her car. She drives a Toyota highlander, my son is 16 months 25 lbs.and rides rear facing in a convertible seat. Anyone have some safe but inexpensive ideas on what she could consider?

[jjordan]

What specific price range are you thinking of? Inexpensive means different things to different people. Also, will the seat be used for just your son, or other grandchildren as well? Will it be left installed in the car, or frequently taken in and out?

[Mercy24]

Cheapest convertable seat I can think of is the Cosco Apt 5 or Scerena.

[lanwenyi]

What's "inexpensive"? how tall is he (seated height too)? what are your rfing goals in gma's car?

general recs for less expensive seats:
Cosco Scenera/Apt
Evenflo Titan
Safety First Onside Air
(above seats are under $100, but are much shorter rfing and ffing than the ones below)
Evenflo Triumph 65
Graco MyRide65
(these two are much longer lasting seats and with watching sales, can be had for $100-125)

[keen1981]

Is grandma installing. Ease of installation is important?

I can not tell you how many pick up people come to my sons school and have no idea how to install their seats. The parents never even consider that in their plans. I get asked ALL the time how to do it. Especially grandmas (who are not too embarrassed and actually realize there is a right/wrong method)

[InBloomDoula]

Originally Posted by lanwenyi What's "inexpensive"? how tall is he (seated height too)? what are your rfing goals in gma's car? general recs for less expensive seats: Cosco Scenera/Apt Evenflo Titan Safety First Onside Air (above seats are under $100, but are much shorter rfing and ffing than the ones below) Evenflo Triumph 65 Graco MyRide65 (these two are much longer lasting seats and with watching sales, can be had for $100-125)

]

I love my Evenflo Titan which I purchased for the less used vehicle in my family.

[maramarrie]

Scenera is very inexpensive, no frills. One set of grandparents has this seat. The other grandparents have an Evenflo Triumph Advance, I think. I got it on clearance at BRU for $80, a great deal. I think the Evenflo is a bit more spacious, but it's an enormous seat. I find that in the vehicles I install these seats in, the Scenera is much more difficult to install (RF install). It could be the seat, it could be the vehicle. The Evenflo is a little easier, but it's a pain in the butt to use the turning handle thing (to tighten the harness) when it's installed RF. I have not installed these FF, so I can't speak to the ease of that.