Is the Maxi cosi Pebble 360 pro 2 the best baby car seat atm?

[MiddleSock]

Looking for the safest/best car seat. Is this the maxi cosi 360 pro 2 pebble? Looking for one that rotates and lies flat a bit and like the slide out option if not moving the car seat.

Bump

Hi OP,
It’s not a seat that is recommended by a lot of car seat specialists. The inserts aren’t always the best and Maxi Cosi are very strict about removing the infant inserts at 60cm, which can leave some babies looking a little lost in the seat. It’s very expensive and for that budget I’d look at something like the Avionaut Pixel Pro which gives fab positioning for even the tiniest of babies, the Avionaut Cosmo or the Britax BabySafe Core. The isofix base isn’t really needed and if you have quite sloped seats in your car then it can cause the angle of the baby seat to be more upright and cause head flop, which is very dangerous for young babies who have no head control. You could the money you save on the base towards their next seat (ideally a ERF one which would take them through to at least 5 years old). The lie flat feature is a bit of a gimmick as it’s not truly lie flat like a bassinet and the time limits for being in the seat are the same regardless of the position.

If you’re really keen on the rotating element, then the BeSafe Beyond system might be worth a look. One base with an infant capsule and then a toddler seat upto 22kg / 125cm ERF.

No I wouldn't say it's the best. Maxi Cosi seem to be better at the basic seats - their Pebble S and Cabriofix are good options, though they don't have the features you mention.

Most if not all infant car seats are reclined by design. The "lie flat" ones usually aren't a huge increase in this but if you like a lie flat, people tend to like the Cybex and Britax ones the best. Or as Family says the Avionaut seats have really good inserts which help level baby out similar to a recline.

IMO rotation isn't hugely helpful on an infant carrier seat because the rotation feature is useful when you're trying to get the straps all lined up correctly and with infant carriers, usually you do this in your house, so you can have the seat facing you anyway. So a straight base is no more difficult. The only situation where rotation is useful is if you think you'll leave the seat in the car 90% of the time but want the option to pull it out and use it on the buggy or carry baby inside occasionally.

I don't know if the slide out feature is that useful. I would go to a shop and see if you can compare it with other seats.

In general if a car seat is trying to do 100 jobs it's possible that it is coming at a compromise for safety. The safest seats are usually the simplest ones which are designed to be easy to use.

I have an earlier version of the pebble 360 and to be honest, I hate it. As @FamilyAreEverything says, the inserts come out at 60cm. DD2 hit this at about 12 weeks and she looked so lost and unsupported in the seat. If it wasn't for the fact that we only use it for taxis, I would have got rid of it. Luckily, the next time we needed it, DD2 had got a bit bigger and chunkier so it fit better, but I would not have wanted to use it everyday.

Thanks all, I’ll have a look at the ones you’ve recommended instead. We’re not planning on using the car seat with the pram, so they’ll always be coming out the car seat to go on the pram so assumed the swivel would be easier to get them in and out?

If you're not planning to put the car seat on the pram, do you really want a carry type one? You might be best off just going for one from birth to age 4/7 (bearing in mind these are approximate ages so if your baby is big, this might be more like 3/6).

Or do you want to be able to carry it sometimes but mostly leave it in the car?

And - if pram compatability is not a desire then you can go even cheaper, less than £100 if you want to.

I totally disagree with the comments made…

I have the pebble pro 360 and it is the best item I bought. It was so comfy and supportive right from birth and once the insert was removed. The swivel is amazing - means we can swivel it around and get baby out this is so handy with tight car parking spaces etc. the recline is brilliant for longer journeys. Any questions feel free to ask

We went with Cybex as couldn’t see the Avionaut in real life and would have thought that one was the best with their unique positioning but Cybex scored the best in the testing so did that. No putting it on the pram chassis but the swivel is still useful