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)

Just wondering if you have an update about this at all @BertieBotts? I only saw the ADAC and Which ratings for the Axkid minikid today, and this thread came up when I was trying to work out why the score is so low.

My DS has been in an Axkid minikid 4 max since April. I bought it thinking it was a very safe seat that would last us a good few years, so this has thrown me and I probably wouldn’t have bought it if I’d have known! Very curious to know if you’ve found out any more about why the seat performed so poorly in the ADAC tests.

Sorry, I don't know anything further to the last time I posted on this thread.

I am more confident in the Plus test's ability to tell you if a seat has an excellent level of protection or not, than I am in the Which/ADAC testing. Because ADAC don't explain what their scores translate to in terms of numbers, it's essentially meaningless. A shame because it used to be a helpful tool among other things. However now I feel like I can't put much store in any results post 2025.

I definitely would not assume a plus tested seat has poor protection just because it did badly on ADAC, basically.

OK actually, I have been looking through some of the German blogs and found this explanation (Google translate version copied and pasted - lying position means reclined position.)

https://sitzkitz.de/adac-kindersitztest-2026/

Why does the Minikid 4 Pro only achieve a satisfactory rating in the frontal crash test?
The Minikid 4 Pro was subjected to two frontal crash tests by the ADAC, one in an upright position and the other in a lying position . The child seat was installed with approximately one hand's width of space between it and the backrest, thus allowing sufficient legroom.

Neck stress values: In both crash tests, only low forces acted on the dummy's sensitive neck. Your child's neck is very well protected by the Minikid 4 Pro in a frontal impact. The ADAC confirms the result of the ➞ Swedish Plus Test . The Minikid 4 Pro carries this seal because it has already proven in the demanding VTI crash test that it can protect a child's neck from serious injuries in an accident.

Chest forces: The seemingly disappointing frontal crash test result for the Minikid 4 Pro is based on the crash test using the Q6 dummy in a reclining position . As I explained at the beginning of my blog post regarding infant car seat test results ( 🠕 Reclining Positions in Infant Car Seats ), higher forces are exerted on the dummy or child when the seat is installed in a reclining or resting position. The heavier and larger the child, the greater the forces in the reclining position. Experts therefore advise always installing infant car seats and child car seats as reclined as necessary, but also as upright as possible, to minimize the risk of injury to your child. This also applies to the Minikid and a 6-year-old child, who – let's be honest – in most cases no longer needs a reclining or resting position in a child car seat.

I have a Max and I've got not on well with it so far. I find fitting and refitting it to be very difficult and I've found that it always ends up tilted towards the middle of the car. I've booked a professional re-install for this week and if that doesn't work I'll be replacing it.

My understanding is that, if fitted correctly, the Pro is very safe, but if not well fitted it obviously isn't safe. As would be the case with other car seats, but with the Pro the fitting is difficult and that's why it ended up with its don't buy warning.

I know Bertiebotts is a car seat guru though and I defer to your greater knowledge!

My understanding is that, if fitted correctly, the Pro is very safe, but if not well fitted it obviously isn't safe. As would be the case with other car seats, but with the Pro the fitting is difficult and that's why it ended up with its don't buy warning.

I think this is Which's interpretation of it, yep. They've done this before for other lower-tether ERF seats, so it's a bit of an old story for a lot of the ERF specialists. As you say, if you're willing to put a bit more time/effort into understanding how to fit a seat and ensure it's done properly, then a low score in ease of use isn't necessarily a dealbreaker.

However the OP's and my and several other posters' concern wasn't with the Which warning but specifically with the test results straight from ADAC, which is the German version of AA, they do all the testing on child seats that then gets sold to the various European consumer publications like Which? in the UK and Stiftung Warentest in Germany.

If you ever want to you can go to ADAC's website (which is in German) and look up the results directly. They publish the results for each part of the testing - they look at crash safety, ease of use as said, and a couple of other things like ergonomics and the presence of pollutants in the fabric (which is a bigger concern in Germany than it is in the UK, Which? don't use these results). And if you want it broken down even more, you can look at OÄMTC, which is the Austrian version of AA, as they publish a free numerical score for each subcategory so you can even see the different scores e.g. for frontal crash test vs side impact crash test.

In the past, any seat which has passed the strict Swedish "Plus Test" has got a very good or higher result on ADAC for the crash test, especially the frontal crash test. But this time the Axkid Minikid Pro got a frontal crash test score of 3.2 which is almost unheard of. Previously, plus-tested seats' scores for safety have been between 1.2-1.9 (lower is better) and the frontal crash test scores are even better than the overall safety score - some are even below 1 (which is excellent and rarely seen).

3.2 as a score to compare is more typical of how cheap, generic (e.g. Nania) forward facing seats score on frontal crash tests. It's not a complete fail or anything, those tend to be 4 or higher, but it's bad - indicating higher than average risk of injury compared with other seats on the market. It's really surprisingly bad for any rear facing seat but especially so for a plus tested one.

Can I jump on the point about reclining, does this not also apply to the Beyond 360 which did pretty well in ADAC testing? I’ve never used an Axkid but my understanding is that they are some of the most upright seats whereas the BeSafe ones have more generous reclines. Or is the 2025 non inclusive so the Beyond would have been tested under the old criteria? Just asking because we often have our Beyond 360 on the most recline because the 17 month old almost always falls asleep instantly in the car seat and I’ve assumed it’s more comfortable for him, and also still safe (though clearly the more upright the safer).

Thank you so much @BertieBotts, I really appreciate your response!

I think it's completely wrong to mark down for tether vs isofix as in some cars isofix is significantly harder to use than tether. I had a 3 series that was fine but my current Octavia has really awkwardly positioned isofix points and it takes me at least 3 goes to clip in correctly (i am extremely diligent about car seats so probably find it easier than most) so a seat is more likely to be incorrectly installed in an isofix in my model of car.

Yes it does, and it did better than the Axkid. So I would assume from that that the Beyond 360 does well even when reclined. It will also have the result from being tested in the FF mode averaged in as well, so you can assume that using it RF is even better.

But also, at 17 months your DC is very much at the lower end of use of that seat so I would assume that a reclined position is no issue at all in any seat. I think the blogger in the linked post is talking about still using a recline for an older child.

More info in case you are curious:

The Beyond RF only and the Beyond 360 were both tested by ADAC. The RF only one was tested in 2024, so using the older test criteria and got 1.3 for safety overall, 1.2 for frontal crash test.

The 360 one was tested in 2025, so newer test criteria, and got 2.0 for safety overall, 2.3 for frontal crash test.

You do usually see that the 360 versions perform worse than the RF only versions because they average the scores from the RF and FF crash tests.

For example, Besafe often make 2 versions of their seats, one RF only and Plus tested for the Nordic market, and one RF / FF for the wider European market. One of these is the Besafe izi Modular X1, which is a non-spin isofix seat up to 105cm which goes into the modular base from their izi Go infant carrier. Both versions were tested under the 2020-2024 testing criteria. The RF only version got 1.2 safety, 1.0 frontal crash test, vs the RF/FF version which got 1.7 safety, 2.0 frontal crash test.

So you can see for example that the Beyond did slightly worse than the Modular even on the RF only version. It's possible that the scores for reclined use with the larger dummy factored into this, or it could just be related to the fact that it's for larger children overall. ADAC don't usually compare seats from different groups directly, and I don't know if they account for this in their scoring. I suspect not, because any time a 25kg FF seat is tested it always did much worse than any 18kg FF seat. Larger/heavier dummy does mean larger loads in crash testing scores, so that could also be why the Beyond does slightly worse than the Modular.

Oh and sorry this was important I think - ADAC have always tested seats in every recline position, or at least certainly in the modern tests from the last 10/15 years. This is not a change for the 2025 version.

I have a feeling that chest loading might be the part which was not included prior to 2025, and I wondered (back in May!) if this was why it got a lower score (which was then confirmed by the German blogger) but I haven't been able to track down where I got this idea from, so I might have been mistaken and chest loading was always one of the measurements they took. I know they have always tested neck loads and some other things, whereas the Plus test only looks at neck loading.