Maxi-Cosi - CabrioFix i-Size Car Seat

I had an 8lbs 11 ounce baby, but she's now in the 9th percentile. Not the chonk we were expecting!! We took her to look at the second stage car seats at 10months, she was fitting fine in her maxi Cosi cabriofix infant carrier which I LOVED but wanted to see the budget for the next stage. Some car seats she still needed the newborn bits, and I think she would never have fitted into them as a newborn. She's such a small baby we used the infant carrier until she was 18 months and could still carry her in it. 

We got a second car seat for taking abroad as I was paranoid about losing our main one. We've got the Maxi cosi cabrio fix as our back up travel seat. It didn't cost very much and it works well. About the cheapest option on the market is a car seat we saw in Halfords (like £69) but honestly after putting the baby in it we thought she looked mega uncomfortable so went for a slightly higher entry point with the Maxi cosi

Our Maxi Cosi Cabriofix has done 2 babies and is about to have a 3rd; bonus is that it attaches to a Yoyo which has been particularly helpful when flying with the car seat. As our son got bigger we swapped him to a Cybex Sirona 360 which rear faces in our main car, and a Graco slimfit R129 which also rear faces for our second car and when we go abroad. Car Seat Safety UK is a good FB group (although they’re a bit militant about rear facing!) but they will do fit checks for you.

Wouldn't personally get the car seat that goes with the Stomp Luxe, it's not great and I ended up replacing it with a maxi cosi cabriofix. The travel system itself is nice though although I wish I'd got the Joie Versatrax for the sake of an easier fold 😅

For car seats, while basically all infant carrier are safe in crash tests because they all have the same basic concept, not all are supportive for newborns and especially tiny and premature babies. They can put babies in a chin to chest position which can restrict my their airways. And some seats have really bulky inserts which fit a newborn well but have an awkward transitional stage where they’ve outgrown the inserts but don’t fit properly in the seats. Some of the more supportive ones are Avionaut Pixel/Cosmo; BeSafe Go Beyond; Britax BabySafe; Maxi-Cosi Cabriofix; Cybex Cloud Z. You can sometimes get these seats in bundles.

We have an Oyster 3 and do use the car seat adaptors fairly often - mostly when popping to appointments or if I need to do a really quick shop. A lot of seats fit the Maxi Cosi adaptors, we have the Britax Baby Safe Pro and the 360 base, plus a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix for my husbands car (both seats fit the adaptors). I really like the Britax seat we have, it has a lie flat feature which is good for newborns and the 360 base is actually quite handy. When they grow out of the carrier stage a lot of people really like the 360 toddler seats, the only thing I’d say to be aware of with those is that if you have a high centile child they can grow out of them earlier than you expect so you have to buy another car seat and there’s a limited amount of harnessed seats to bridge the gap between a high centile child growing out of an 18kg harnessed seat and being old enough to go into a booster seat with the adult seatbelt.

Which is not a great source of info on car seats tbh, you can go look at the results of the ADAC testing (standard pan European testing that which refer to) tho you might need to use google translate. After accounting for ADAC scoring, Which tend to score seats based on things like ease of fitting and colours of fabrics, and unless somethings changed recently they don’t score the extended rear facing seats very highly even tho they pass the Swedish Plus test which is the toughest test possible. But because they’re mostly not isofix (due to the weight limit of isofix itself) they mark them down for being ‘harder to fit’. Personally I find isofix seats trickier to fit but hey ho. I really don’t want to direct you to fb groups for car seat advice because some of them are absolutely crazy but I’m in one sane one I can vouch for (Car Seat Advice UK) - they are mostly run by independent car seat retailers so some people think they’re shilling for the most expensive seats they sell but if you just join and then search past posts for recommendations you’ll see a tonne of info not only on infant carriers but the next stages too. Toddler seats are where it gets really prone to drama as people have varying levels of comfort with how early to turn their kids forward facing (and depending on if you have a taller/heavier child than average, seats like the Joie spin seats can be outgrown far earlier than you expect). The group I mentioned does heavily moderate so you shouldn’t see any comments that are too crazy but it’s very much a hot topic. For car seats that click on to the pram chassis, many of them fit the Maxi Cosi adaptors, they’re very universal. We have a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix we are reusing from our first born in my husbands car (it’s a great cheaper option) and I’ve just bought a Britax Baby Safe Pro with the spin base for my car. John Lewis had an offer on which made it about £100 cheaper than anywhere else but not sure if that’s still on. Our pram is an Oyster 3 :) it’s mid-tier so a bit pricier than your Joie option but it’s less than an iCandy, Egg, Bugaboo, Uppababy etc. The Oyster 4 has just been released which can convert to a tandem but otherwise seems to be pretty much the same as the 3. I saw lots of prams while on mat leave with my first and I don’t think I ever once thought oh I should have gotten that pram instead and we are reusing it for our second. It does everything we want it to: folds easily and compactly, not too heavy, good storage underneath, both me and 6ft4 husband can use it comfortably because the handle extends out, brake is easy to use and you can’t accidentally kick it on, bassinet worked nicely, the main seat reclines well and can be parent or world facing, it has a good weight limit of 22kg I think and it handled some fairly rough walks without issue!

Kiddies Kingdom have a Britax Baby Safe Core on clearance for £49.90+ shipping and I don’t actually think it’s possible to get a better deal than that. We’ve got the Baby Safe Pro which is the next model up and it’s a really nice seat. We’ve also got a Maxi Cosi Cabriofix which would be my other recommendation for a no frills but good & safe seat. Both the Baby Safe Core and the Cabriofix can use the seatbelt to fit into the car, you don’t *need* an isofix base though they are available. They’ll also both fit on most pushchairs using Maxi Cosi adapters (despite the name more than just Maxi Cosi brands will fit with these adapters). If you know you are expecting a smaller baby then I’d go with the Britax seat over the Maxi Cosi. There are seats that will fit a smaller baby even better it’s just probably not quite worth it in your case.

By the fact you’re saying ISOFIX I’m guessing you’re UK or European based so answering from a UK perspective. There are newborn baby carriers available that can click into a separate isofix base OR can be belted in themselves with the seatbelt, I have two (Britax Babysafe Pro, Maxi Cosi Cabriofix). Both are good seats and equally safe whether fitted with isofix or the belt, it’s just a lot quicker and more convenient with the isofix base. Baby carriers with the isofix built in like the Joie Sprint will be a niche product because the advantage of having a baby carrier car seat is that it’s portable. Adding the weight of the isofix mechanism plus a baby will make it a lot less portable! Assuming you fit the seat as per the instructions, isofix and belt are equally safe. Many people like the reassurance that isofix gives but I personally don’t think it makes it easier, that part depends more on the car you are fitting it into. Some cars have the isofix bars really easy to access and it is just a case of positioning the bars and giving it a firm push but in other cars you’re in a cramped position shoving your hands down the gap in the back of the seat to find the bars, getting one side clicked in while the other refuses to play ball and regretting your life choices.

Have a look what adaptors they make. Maxi Cosi/universal adaptors fit a lot of seats including the cabriofix which is a good seat and not too pricey either.

I'd definitely recommend the maxi cosi Cabrio fix or the Britax baby safe core. You don't need to spend money on isofix bases, strapping it in correctly with the seatbelt is just as safe and will save you money/weight lugging it about. The Nuna car seats can put babies in a bit of an awkward position due to the shape of the inserts so may not be ideal. I'd also strongly advise against getting one second hand as someone else suggested as you'd have no idea of age or history.

Any seat will fit if it has universal adaptors and if it doesn't then you buy them for like £25. Avionaut Cosmo is a great budget option that is also one of the safest. I had the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix which is also a great budget seat and is safe but it has quite short limits so won't last you as long as the Cosmo which is probably the longest lasting infant carrier (or very close to).

It's not advised to have babies in an infant carrier (the one that attaches to the pram) for longer than 30 mins so unless it's a quick drive, in out the shop then it's not safe. We had the maxi cosi cabriofix which is a safe and bduget friendly option but it has low height/weight limits so she's outgrown it now at 10 months. The Avionaut Cosmo will last over a year though and around £130. I had a baby in September so the only bonus of the infant carrier is that you can easily bring it inside to keep it warm before putting a baby in. We switched to the Avionaut Sky (which is suitable from birth too) around 5/6 months and it's been great. Love this seat. Should last her until she's 5 at least.

I do believe it is this seat which is a good budget one. If you're on Facebook, I recommended joining the Bump to Booster group. The admins are experts and are so good at giving good non-judgemental advice. This is a good seat once baby fits but all isofix seats have a set weight limit, usually around 18kg for low budget seats which doesn't tend to last children long enough so then it would be recommended to buy a longer lasting seat which is double the money. I got the maxi cosi cabriofix with base with my travel system (had to ask for others as the pebble wasn't very supportive or recommended) and now I use the Avionaut Sky. We switched around 6 months and love it so I can highly recommend that. It lasts until 25kg which should see my low centile baby until she's old enough for a booster. It was pricier at £300 but it lasts 10 years so we'll get lots of use out of it when we have our next one too. It really is a minefield so don't worry. I went down a rabbit hole when I was pregnant and had a panic attack that my baby would die if I would bought the pebble. All my friends have them and they're fine seats. My baby wouldn't die if she were in it but them hormones are brutal!

We don’t have a car but bought a maxi cosi cabrio fix as although it was just for a year, the flexibility of being able to take it anywhere (and put in other cars) was great. It’s also one of the cheapest, glad we didn’t go for a pebble like we initially wanted

We got the ocarro with maxi cosi Cabriofix infant carrier from ukbabycentre.com for £800 (over 50% cheaper than it would have been from mamas & papas!!) We went for the ocarro as we’re in a small cobblestoney town and do lots of dog walks so it’s bigger wheels are ideal.  Definitely try lots out in store first to figure out which ones you like.