Best extended rear-facing car seat with decent front passenger leg room - real world experiences please!

[Spareincoming]

I will need to move one of the DC from a Britax Dualfix 5z in the coming months and had intended to buy a new Britax Max way plus* but Britax have stopped making them and replaced it with a very different model - Max safe pro - which seems to be a very large seat needing 77cm from the back of the rear seat to the back of the passenger seat according to Britax’s dimensions.

My DP is over 6ft and having done 5 years of being unable sit with his legs straight in our previous car, I’m keen to let him keep his leg room!

So, what are others using and does your passenger still have leg room!?

*we already have one Maxway plus and it’s brilliant, but now need two ERF for two vehicles.

I think the most compact erf is the Avionaut sky. You can install it fairly upright too so it takes up less room. It doesn’t have the longest shell though so depending g on your child’s centiles it might not last beyond 4/5yo. We have one behind driver seat and I have a 6ft 4 husband, but our car is quite spacious.

@potentialdogowner Thank you, I’ve had a look at the reviews on the Sky and many agree with you about it being a short shell so that rules it out for us.

I’m so annoyed at how big the new Britax is, or I’d have just stuck with what I know - Britax!

The Axkid Minikid Pro and Minikid Pro can be fitted compactly and have a much longer shell size, so shouldn’t be outgrown before your child is ready to FF in a HBB. I think the Axkid Movekid has a similar shell, and is slightly cheaper. If you have a look on the Axkid website they should have a list of stockists where you could try them out in your car.

I assume your partner has the seat fairly upright which will allow him to have the seat back further without compromising on the rear cabin space.

Alternatively a bigger car?

Thanks @FamilyAreEverything I’ll have a good look at the Axkid website tomorrow.

DP does sit quite upright fortunately, the car is quite a big car already, just the Britax I’d usually go for is massive!

Summoning @BertieBotts please!

Hello lovely, I know you as the car seat guru so can I pick your brain - feel free to say no!

Don’t suppose you know if different car manufacturers angle adjusting foam wedges can be used with other car seats?

I’ve a Britax max way plus that needs an adjusting wedge to fit a Volvo nicely as using the adjustable front leg at its maximum tips it too far back and reduces passenger legroom, whereas using the wedge and the front leg on the lowest setting works well, but the original wedge is quite battered and I can’t buy the Britax wedge anymore; could an Axkid wedge work?
Failing that I’ll be duct taping the original wedge up!

Another vote for the minikid

Besafe Stretch! Lots of legroom. My 80th centile child still fits in his at 107cm at 5.

Don’t get an axkid move. I absolutely bloody hate ours. It’s safe which is great but other than that it is awful. He slumps terribly in it and it’s so awkward to use. I have tried everything to stop the slumping. It’s crap

@MalvernHillbilly reviews suggest they’re huge - and limit front passenger legroom - is that not the case?

@showmethegin the Axkid Minikid 4 I think is the one ticking the boxes. I hope they’re not similar as DC can be a slumper!

The BeSafe is huge, so great for your child, but not necessarily for your partner. That being said, we got to over 7 years before it was outgrown by height. We also had it comfortably fitting in the rear seat of a Skoda Superb with enough space up front for my 6ft6 FIL. Legs weren’t straight though, that is really unlikely with any combination of seats / cars.

It is safer for a child to be more upright once they move into ERF seats like these. Head flop isn’t a concern and it may be that they need time to adjust to being more upright. Slumping or body flop is a fit issue that needs to be corrected. Ensure that bottom is to the back of the seat, straps level and no lower than 2cm below the shoulders, take the slack the straps around the legs first, then pull the strap to tighten the harness. You also need to make sure you have the correct inserts in for the child’s size.

Another vote for the a Axkid minikid, we were also looking at the Britax max safe pro but it was just so huge that we ended up going for the minikid. We’ve been really happy with it so far and my DS seems comfy in it.

@PaperAirplanesFlying this might seem a strange question but what is the buckle
like on the Axkid?

We’re genuinely over 100 miles away from an Axkid stockist so I’d be ordering it blind and I’ve recently had to find a car seat for another family members car that had a low faff buckle compared to the Joie seat/buckle they had installed - Britax being the lowest faff, Joie the most faff - and realised that whilst I am more
capable than my family member, I do not have the patience for faffing about with buckles after years of Britax simplicity whilst getting the other DC in and out of the car with varying degrees of cooperation.

I’d recommend the axkid minikid too.
Buckles wise my only point of reference has been maxi cosi seats so I can’t compare it to the britax but I’ve not found the buckles faffy at all and I manage to get a car seat refusing 2 year old into it regularly with relative ease.

The Axkid Minikid 4 Pro is the rebranded Movekid which was the updated version of the Move. I’ve seen in car seat Facebook groups people complaining about heads slumping forward in Axkida not irregularly. I think the seats are very upright and there’s not many recline options for them.

That said, they are the most compact ERF seats other than the Sky, which as you’ve noted, has a much shorter shell and is often outgrown at around 110cm. The Britax and BeSafe are much bigger.

The Axkid buckle is two bits that you hold together and plug into the main bit, not sure how well that description works but I’ve uploaded a photo that should be visible in a bit!

They are quite small so it can be a little bit faffy but it’s definitely not a major issue, DS is sometimes fairly… resistant to going into his car seat but I’ve never struggled to get him buckled.

@toastofthetown thanks for that, something to consider for sure as the child it’s for is a bit of a floppy one!
I’ve not ventured into the Facebook groups yet for reviews etc as I remember from buying the Max way plus that some of the groups are ferocious!

@PaperAirplanesFlying thanks so much for the photo, that really helps!

Honestly, I’m cursing myself as I almost bought 2 Maxway plus seats originally which would have solved all the problems now, but made do with the now rather dated Two way elite.

I have an Axkid Movekid in a Seat Arona, installed with the recline foot out, and I can drive comfortably at 176cm. It’s been in a Kia Ceed estate/Nissan Juke and Fiat 600 too fitted with a bit of legroom, and I’m ok in the passenger seat in front of all of them. I also have a MaxWay Plus in our other car, and find the Axkid less bulky and the buckle easier. DS prefers the Movekid. It’s the predecessor to the Pro, and can be found for £265 at the moment.

Yea the groups are ferocious and have their own car seat safety opinions which a rent backed by any actual data (like the frequent assertions that forward facing a child in a harness is dooming them to near certain internal decapitation) and they are run by salespeople so so of course the people who don’t sell
Britax won’t advise those seats, but there are frequent posts for fit checks and that has kind of given a baseline for issues that people have with the ERF seats. I have seen more complaints of head flop in the Axkids than the Avionaut, BeSafe or Britax seats. But beyond infancy it’s not dangerous and as they get older people have success in getting their children to look at the car ceiling to counteract it.

@BarryManilowsWardrobe Thanks for the direct comparison; I am a big Britax advocate, having been really impressed with their customer service standards over the years.

@toastofthetown Yes, that’s why I’m keen to keep out of those groups to be honest!

The head flop is probably a non issue for most, but it’s a bit of an anxiety issue for me really as DC was born with airway issues that have required surgery and whilst the amazing consultants have told me the fact he’s naturally a very relaxed, floppy, slumpy child will have no impact on his breathing now post procedures, I do worry!

I may wait until payday and order a Britax (going with what I know) and an Axkid and compare them side by side as it looks like the only stockist of both near me is a 4 and a half hour round trip!

Hi sorry, I was not on MN for the last few days.

I am not sure about using an Axkid wedge with a Britax MWP. I suspect you'd get a useful response if you contact Britax directly, though, or I've had some useful/practical/non-rabid advice from contacting carseat.se before - they absolutely love the max way plus, and would probably support you continuing to use it. I used FB messenger, but I am sure they also respond to email or there might be a contact form on their website. I think they'd probably be able to advise on suitability of taping up the wedge you have, as well.

The other places I'd look for advice might be whichever retailer you originally bought the MWP from or maybe the In Car Safety Centre due to the medical needs of your LO. Otherwise, the FB groups The A-Z of Rear Facing and Car Seat Advice UK seem to have less misinformation but also hardly ever have posting open. But TBH the way that FB groups attract the piling-on puts me off ever asking publically on there, even in those two groups. You could also try messaging privately to either Margaret from Rear Facing Toddlers, or Alan from Little Peas. I have seen both of them give reasonable, personalised advice before. Although they may not accept private messages from non-customers, I don't know. Margaret is on the A-Z page and Alan is on the UK one. The other reason to look at FB groups would be to ask whether anybody would be willing to sell or post you a no-longer-needed Britax wedge.

I'm afraid I'm not sure how big the newer Britax seats are to compare directly. I think the angle is probably the issue, they don't seem to adjust as much as the older Britax seats. Measuring from the rear seat headrest is tricky, because the angle of these varies massively and even the height of them would affect the angle as well. Remember that if the dimensions given are the car seat sat flat on the floor, it will be tilted back slightly in a car, as most rear vehicle seats do tilt backwards between 5-15 degrees. There are flat ones but they are much less common, and mostly in vans/people carriers/minibuses.

I will see if I can find any comparison photos of the size profiles of the newer seats. These used to be the bread and butter of those groups/pages and I miss them!

FWIW, if you still have a TWE, you're confident bracing it, and it's still in good condition, it is also still perfectly legal to continue using it, and personally I would be OK with this, especially if you can fit it in the middle - the side impact protection isn't great (but even RF itself is a protective factor for side impacts.) This Swedish study says 10 years is a reasonable lifespan for car seats, but also that longer is possible. Britax have always used high quality materials and I would assume that their build quality in general lends confidence to a longer lifespan. Anecdotally (and third hand) I saw someone in one of the groups say that they had visited Britax's German factory and at that factory, there was a (Britax-) Römer King seat (their flagship from ~2003) which had been displayed on the roof outside the factory, exposed to all weathers, for around 20 years. As an experiment, they took it down and crash tested it alongside a newly-made King seat and it only performed slightly worse. This study suggests similar results, although points out that newer seats often have better safety features, which is definitely applicable to the TWE.

@BertieBotts Thank you, as always, for being amazing!

I have sent a lot of emails and messages to the folks you recommended in the last few days and have hopefully secured 2 new wedges and drumroll please… a Britax Hi-way 2, which is a seat we have had previously but was written off after a crash.

That means I will be able to keep the Maxway plus in the most used car, which is great, and have the hi-way in the other, keeping the TWE as a back up, as whilst I have no problems with the bracing etc, the hi-way 2 is a step up.

I’ll see if we’ve still got a Britax head protector/comfort cushion for the Hi-way 2 as the old one had one and it made it a better fit when the user was smaller.