Using US car seat in Europe?

maurahalp

We are planning on bringing our baby from the US to family in Ireland early next year. @ tacosarah posted earlier about car seats not fitting the sports seats in cars ( thank you Sarah!) and it made me realise that I had taken for granted we could bring our car seat with us. I've tried looking up the wonderful Google and it seems that the seat doesn't comply with regulations but most of the sites are several years old so this could easily have changed. Has anyone come across good reputable sites they would recommend that I could use to check this? Or have personal experience? Thanks in advance!

reware

@maurahalp - You won't be legal or safe here with your US car seat. EU seatbelt anti-lock mechanism (rather than locking seat belts in American cars) and ISO fix system (rather than US Latch system) make US car seats incompatible w EU/UK cars. Lucie's List gives a good explanation and the Cybex website is also informative. From my own research (we split our time between London & nyc, and cars in both cities) you're better off buying a European designed car seat as EU standards are more stringent and EU seats can be used with the US seat belt system with equal safety ratings as a US car seat in its base. Just doesn't work vice versa.

Fwiw, we're going with the Cybex Cloud Q (only because it fully reclines), though the Aton is lighter weight and ideal for travelling.

maurahalp

This was really helpful, thank you @reware , I appreciate your advice.

TacoSarah

You might be able to rent one if you are comfortable with that option. If you are renting a car through a rental company, they often give you the option of having a baby car seat added.