Axkid Minikid 4 or BeSafe Stretch

[AegonT]

These two seats are the same price and both go up to 125cm and 36kg. DD is 2.4 and 80cm tall. She still fits her baby seat but it was in a crash - insurance company is sending cash to cover car seats and suggested if the seat is almost outgrown to use it to fund the next seat.

I filtered the toddler seats at the InCar Safety Centre by both R129 and Plus Tested and liked the look of these two. We had the original Minikid for my older DD and liked it a lot. We've never had a BeSafe seat. I can find a lot more online about the Minikid. Has anyone got any experience of these seats?

The Minikid 4 is very new - really only just been released and is sort of a do-over of the Minikid 3 which was released last year and flopped in comparison to the Besafe Stretch. You can't really use experiences of the older Minikid (original or 2) because it's not the same seat as the Minikid 3/4.

I think the best place to find experiences of these will be the ERF car seat groups on FB, as you'll find people who have actually had the Besafe Stretch for a year or more, and you might find experiences of the Minikid 3. And some of the retailers might have comparisons if you can look on their social media (I'll see what I can find).

As I understand the Minikid 3 and 4 are basically identical but there were a few annoying niggles about the 3 which have been fixed in the 4, but I don't know exactly what these are.

In terms of company trust, Besafe are just as highly regarded as Axkid, in fact they have been around quite a bit longer making ERF seats for the Nordic market and RF/FF or just FF seats for the German market mainly. Their seats always get absolutely top safety scores on ADAC, even the ones which have forward facing options.

Here's a comparison in Norwegian - you can use Google Chrome to translate. The ones done by English specialists tend to be on their social media (instagram, facebook, tiktok) and it's harder to search them.

https://www.dyrebarlast.org/l/sammenligning-av-stoler/

Thanks @BertieBotts good ideas; I've got a few days to decide. I am very nervous of getting this £480 decision wrong. This is a lot of money but we want the safest seats possible and like good quality for something they'll sit in every day for years. I am considering an slightly older non I-SIZE seat for a more tried and tested product and it is a lot of money and I don't want to have to buy again till she needs a HBB. I did see the headrest and back cushion has been inproved on the Minikid 4 so I wasn't considering the 3 as I assumed it was uncomfortable.

I mean if you liked the older minikid, then there's nothing stopping you from getting a minikid 2 - it's basically the same as the original (not sure if you had the original or the 2 before?)

At her height it sounds like she is not on massive centiles, so no real panic about the seat lasting for ages and ages. So you likely don't really need the 36kg capacity of the newer ones. If you want to, you could probably even go for a spinning rotating seat - those are nice to use too. But the Minikid 2 would be a safe bet if you've used it and liked it before. It's probably not really worth spending an extra £100 on the upgraded version unless there are specific features you like on it.

I wouldn't buy the 3 now the 4 is out, but I was meaning it might be easier to find reviews about the 3. But seems hard to find anything like that anyway.

We were making the same decision for our 13 mo a few months back. Went with the be safe because I liked that it could be reclined in situ if he was looking sleepy. It’s been great so far, no complaints!

No experience of the Minikid, but we’ve had a BeSafe Stretch for around a year now and I only wish it had been around when our son was younger. He outgrew his 25kg ERF BeSafe iZi Plus by height (above 75th) at 4.5 years (he’s below 50th for weight) and we felt he wasn’t ready for a HBB.
It’s a fab seat, so roomy and we should get to at least 7 years in it before it’s outgrown. We’ve never needed to make use of the recline in situ as our son doesn’t really nap in the car anymore, but I can see that’s a great feature to have. It’s also really quick to install, especially once you have the tethers in place as they’re self tightening. It is space hungry, but we have a Skoda Superb for that reason (and the boot space).
If cabin space is an issue, and you don’t need the 36kg limit, then I’ve heard that the Avonaut Sky is a more compact seat, but it has less height in the shell so outgrown earlier in children with long torsos.
Good luck in making your decision and well done for looking to keep your child rear facing for as long as possible.

Thanks everyone. We have a Quashqai so ok for room and it would be passenger side. It would be a bonus if it would also fit in our other smaller car though. My reading around suggests Minikids fit tight spaces - we found that with our Original one, we first had it fitted a small three door car and had it reclined. I don't think we'd recline the seat in use, we've had this feature on other seats and never used it. I think based on the fact that the posters above and some on the Facebook group have used and liked the Stretch it is edging ahead but I'm now starting to think I need a day to travel to actually try these seats out and look at the new Britax 36kg ERF one.

@BertieBotts I will look at the Minikid 2 also, it was the original we had; purchased in 2015. I also completely forgot we have recently purchased from BeSafe for our older daughter's HBB, it was our second favourite HBB after the Britax we got for the other car. We are happy with that purchase; it seems great quality and is comfortable. It's quite big though!

Hi. Back to update on final decision. We tried the Axkid Minikid 4 and Besafe Stretch in the car and the Stretch was massive and only barely fit! We would be fairly limited on how far back the front seat went and limited on how much we could recline the Stretch. The Minikid 4 is a very compact seat and the bottom part has been much minimized compared to the Minikid 2 so it takes up less space on the back seat so we even squeezed an adult between the two car seats on one trip last month. It is a bit simpler to fit in the car compared to the original Minikid. We are having a bit of trouble with self adjusting headrest sticking so we've locked it in place.

I read something about that sticky headrest problem the other day. I'll see if I can find it.

OK this is what was said on the FB group (hopefully I am not breaking any rules by sharing this!)

Some people said it's an issue with the padding - this means nothing to me but perhaps makes sense when you have the seat yourself?

If baby is younger, the additional back panel can be removed as may get caught on its way down. Once child is older and main insert is removed and will benefit from the extra panel it can be reattached

Someone else said to ensure the headrest is RIGHT at the top before you try to pull down. If it isn't right at the top it might not come down properly.

Then the last suggestion was a technique: it's a bit of a knack! You have to tighten the strap around the hips first then tighten the shoulders a little bit, before the headrest moves, and then pull the strap in one smooth motion!

You can also of course lock it in place as you have done. but as the Minikid harness will self-tighten to take out any slack it is worth leaving it unlocked so that it will do this.

Thanks Bertie. We have it locked still and when the extra padding gets removed hopefully it will move better. I do tighten the straps round the legs first and the shop said about tightening in one smooth motion but I couldn't do it.

@AegonT Can I ask how you’re getting on with the axkid seat now? We have a Qashqai and trying to decide between the same two seats as you did

@mazzj We like the seat except for the tricky to adjust headrest. It fits in the Qashqai very well and is quick to install. The other seats would have left no room to adjust leg room or recline and left the front passenger very squashed!