We bought the SNS meridian convertable car seat (I HIGHLY recommend that seat ) When we first bought DD home from hospital that is what we used.

Within a week I went to babies galore & bought a capsule. We both found it too fidgety getting her in & out of the seat especially when she was asleep.

We also go to church on a Sunday night so we had her rugged up in the capsule in the lounge room, then straight to the car, then straight into church. She stayed snug as a bug & warm & we never looked back.

We also have a pram with bassinette attatchment (I have some pics in my gallery now) It's an Emmaljunga & I LOVE it while bubs is a newborn. I admit though I much prefer my phil & teds for toddler & older (whole nother thread there though LOL)

I think if your not in a position to buy a capsule & a convertable carseat, then I'd suggest looking at hiring one as they are quite cheap. But if you're thinking of having more babies later on then it will end up being cheaper in the long run to buy one & hold onto it for any further babies (Like we did)

As the others have said the convertable car seat does the job fine & will last from newborn to approx 4 years depending which seat you get (My DD is still in her car seat, shes tall for her age & still has growing room left, money very well spent. Bubs will go into DD's carseat when he outgrows his capsule & DD will move into her booster, she will be about 4 yrs old by then I'm guessing)

Its personal choice but at least you have lots of people on here to give you honest opinions from their experiences

Good luck making your decision, so exciting starting to buy the "bigger" baby items