Test driving cars with an Infant?

We bought a car this spring and had to do test driving. We left our son with Nana and brought the car seat though....he doesn't like the constant in and out of his seat. If the person selling the car doesn't let you check to see if the car seat fits properly in the car, they're not worth your business. We told the dealers we weren't taking any car off the lot until we did the car seat test and walked away from a few pushy dealers.

I was test driving cars a couple of weeks ago and the dealership actually asked me if I wanted to bring the car seat into the car. However, I said no - we would trade off.

When we went car shopping none of the dealers had a problem with us putting the car seat into the vehicle and taking our daughter with us for the test drive. This was February '09.

I would think not but if it were me I would get a sitter or a 3rd person to watch the baby while you actually test drive the car. I think that would be the easiest instead of having to put a car seat in each car and have baby crying during your drive. That is a big decision to buy a new car and I would want to be able to think about the car not the baby.

The dealership we went to offered to hook our baby seat into the one we were test driving. I didn't feel comfortable with that since we have the seat with the base, and I had the fire department inspect the base hook up. My husband and I just took turns driving while the other one took the baby for a stroller walk around the lots. You'd have to ask the dealership what they allow though.

I don't think that they will have a problem with it. Also, I think it is good to have the baby and car seat with you while test driving the car so you can see how well the car seat fits in the car. If we had a baby before we purchased our cars we would not have got them. In my car the car seat only fits in the middle and in my husbands it hardly fits at all (it's a 2 door sports car)

It should not be a problem, as you have a "covertible" car seat. Since it can be made covert, the dealer will never see it, thus no problem. If however you have a "convertible" car seat, you are getting the opportunity not only to test the car's performance, but to assess how easily the seat can be affixed for travel, which is a secondary benefit. Right now the car business is very competitive. Any dealership who refuses to let you install a car seat should be off you list of potential places to buy a car.

I don't think they'd tell you no, but you'll have to pull the car seat in and out every time and it will start to get irritating. Is there a family member, sitter or neighbor who could babysit a few hours so you and your husband can go test drive? If not, then I recommend taking turns driving the car. Under no circumstance should you ask the salesman to babysit... I don' believe they can due to liability issues.

We went car shopping and took test drives with our daughter, installing the convertible car seat as necessary. One of us sat in back with her with the salesman in front...

It was useful to test the relative ease of using the car seat with the various cars.

If this is actually a problem somewhere, find another dealership!

When we were car shopping this spring, no, we couldn't test drive with our son in tow, we had to find a babysitter. I'm guessing they don't want to be liable if something were to happen in their car, and it does take up some of their time in install/uninstall the car seat. Good luck and happy shopping!!