Axkid ADAC results

[Lisarda]

I have rear-facing 4yr-old DTs in Axkid Minikid 4 (the original ones, not the Max or Pro), and need a third car seat for number 3 (age 1). We would go for a third Minikid, but were waiting on the latest ADAC / Which? results to see if any other options came up. The Minikid 4 Pro has been tested this round, and only scored middling on safety and is now a Which? Don't Buy - does anyone know what this means for the other Minikid 4 seats? Are they also only likely to have a middling safety score? I know they tend not to like the installation, bulkiness, etc. but I thought the idea was that these were some of the safest seats on the market? And if we don't go with an Axkid, what else is there that we can ERF with three across (ideally under £400)?

I saw this too and I am really puzzled by it TBH. Usually the ERF seats which have passed the Plus test (which Minikid 4 Pro has) do really well in the ADAC test. I know that ADAC changed their test criteria in 2025 and have completely changed how they perform the crash test - they do it at a lower speed but with a shorter stopping distance, which makes it more intense but also more realistic. This is more like how the plus test is conducted, so it's good in theory that they have increased the stringency of the test - but while Plus test is a simple pass/fail, and is calibrated to tell you whether or not the force on the dummy's neck and spine exceed a level which would result in serious injury or death. Passing this means it doesn't, whereas the ADAC score is more of a comparative number so you can see if one seat did better or worse than another one, but it doesn't tell you anything about what it would actually mean for a child occupant of the seat, just a very vague "average/above average risk of injury" etc.

It used to be that you could broadly compare seats which had been tested in different years, but they have changed the method of the test so substantially that it's no longer possible to compare them, and you have no info about what the number actually means which makes it completely useless information. I don't understand how a plus tested seat can score "average risk of injury in a frontal crash" - I mean, huh?! Did it get really terrible chest loading or something? I wondered whether it was the effect of the larger harness capability and using a bigger dummy but the Besafe Beyond - the 360 version - was tested in 2025, so presumably with the same criteria, and it did much better, which is unusual for a forward and rear facing seat.

I would be really interested to hear from anyone who knows more about what happened to give it such a low score on ADAC, but I absolutely would not assume this means that it is a poorly performing seat. It's plus tested and that would be enough for me.

IIRC BTW the Minikid Pro identical technically to the Movekid, and the Minikid 4 you have is identical to the Minikid Max under the new naming system.

Minikid 3 which is technically identical to Minikid 4 also got an extremely good score (1.5 is one of the best scores you can possibly get) for safety when it was tested under the old criteria.

www.adac.de/rund-ums-fahrzeug/ausstattung-technik-zubehoer/kindersitze/kindersitztest/marken/axkid/axkid-minikid-3-id-773/

Thanks, @BertieBotts! That does make sense, and I also wondered whether there were changing goalposts going on, but would be keen to hear if anyone knows anything more about how it got that score.
And thanks for the explanation on the naming - that also makes total sense.
Sadly, I think the besafe is out of our budget, so we'll probably go with another Max.

The Besafe is isofix as well, so no good for getting 3 across. I think the Minikid is a good option. The only other suggestion I'd have is one of the smaller belt fitted seats like Graco Slimfit, but it means when DC3 hits 105cm, you'll need to move one of the twins FF whether their seat is outgrown or not. With a third minikid, you can keep them all RF as long as you want to.

Of course (though we have three full seats across, and can fit 1 isofix and 2 belted). We'll probably go for the Minikid again, though will have a look at the Graco (youngest is 1st centile height, so even 105cm should last a while)