Originally Posted by Eclipsepearl

Any car seat tech will tell you to never rent a car seat when renting a car. Always bring your own or have another reliable source.

Not only is there the problem you ran into, the missing owner's manual but the seat itself could be unsafe. It could be expired, broken or involved in a recall. Also, many of these seats aren't stored and cleaned correctly.

As a stupid, first-time mom, I made this mistake too. They wanted by very big 1 year old to fit into an infant seat. Ugh! It was old and crappy looking. I've peeked at the car seats when I've rented cars on both sides of the Atlantic and I've never been impressed.

There's just too much risk. I wouldn't trust the car rental company to provide a decent seat and I certainly wouldn't trust a random employee to install it.

I traveled long haul between California and Europe, by myself with one, then two and later three children in tow. At 20 months, your child can easily ride in a car seat strapped to a luggage cart. Works great! Leave the stroller at home. At 20 months, the baby carrier was still super useful. A good quality one should still work and my tired toddlers could be worn while I threw the carry-on's into the car seat.

I also bought a car seat in California and kept it at my parents' place for our visits. My mom would throw the seat in the car on the way to the airport and I'd install it right as we left the airport.

Anyway, it really wasn't that difficult to bring the seat. I knew how to install it so no worries there and no screw up's by the car seat companies.

Car accidents are the no. 1 killer of little kids in developed countries so please take car safety seriously and keep your child safe.