Re: car seat in pak
our car seat manual actually shows how to use the car seat wihout a base and we have used it a few times while we took baby in the different car than the one that has the base installed in it. We sued teh shoulder-lap belt as it was shown in the pics and it seemed n felt secure.
We plan to take the car seat with us to Pakistan without the base and thats why I had checked teh manual of the carseat!
I think base is more for convienience than safety because you can just click the car seat in the base whereas without the base you have to spend time getting the right angle and securing it properly.