This is a review of the car seat we bought for our daughter. A Maxi-Cosi Priori XP Car Seat in Black Reflection. At first, we used the baby carrier that came with the pram as a travel system but she soon outgrew that and we felt it would be better to have her as a forward facing seat so we could communicate better with her.
She was a tall baby so was ready for the new style quite early on. We couldn't go for an isofix base system as we didn't have the right cars for it to go in.

Price
We paid £119 for this car seat but it is usually £149.99. We got ours from Toys R Us. In fact we bought three! One for each of our cars and one for Nanny's car too as it saved moving them all around. There are vouchers in the catalogue at the moment to save money off car seats so ask before you buy as the staff are usually helpful in pointing out discounts and vouchers. I have since seen the same seat in red at mothercare for £10 less so you can get a bargain.

Fitting the chair
The seat fits around the car's own seatbelt and clicks securely into place. This is easy to do following the diagrams on the actual seat. There is a lock which clamps the seat around the belt once everything is in place. It takes around five minutes to fit the seat into the car and even I managed to do it so it must be fairly easy. A lot of shops offer a trial fixing service so you can see how the car seat suits your car as not every seat is made for every car. At Toys R Us you can't take the car seat back once you have bought it (unless faulty) so they do recommend a fitting before purchase.

In use
The seat is an upright forward facing car seat. Recommended for 9 months plus. You can adjust the straps to your baby so they sit on their shoulders and the shop assistant advised that she would be in this style of seat until around 4 years old so that justifies the price I think. Once you are happy with the height of the straps, you can sit your baby in and fasten them in. The two straps meet at the clasp which you have to hold together and click into the main lock which is between their legs (and padded well). This is a little fiddly and there is definitely a knack to it. It took Nanny ages to work it out and she struggled a little as she has trouble with her thumbs. A little research showed that there is no easy solution to this, they are all a bit difficult to click together, made worse by a wriggly child.

What helps is the hooks that you can use to keep the straps out of the way when you first sit the child in, then a little rummaging around the sides for the metal bits ensues!

I think I am making this sound more difficult than it actually is. Put it this way, we wouldn't have bought it three times if it was that hard as the three purchases were made at different times.

Another good feature is the slack mechanism, so you can make the straps nice and long whilst you fasten then and then tug on the excess strap the other side of the lock and tighten up the tension on the straps.

Problems
Our daughter is like Houdini and can get out of any situations involving straps, whether this is in the pushchair, car seat or even in a harness (reins). She regularly wriggles out of the shoulder straps which means she is not secure in the seat should there be a crash. Difficult to put right on a motorway but I have pulled over to put her back in when driving locally and I pull the tension really tight then to try and stop her getting out! Only once has she completely climbed out and stood up in her seat whilst I was driving!

My thoughts
I do think this is a good universal car seat that is mid priced - you can get cheaper ones but you can pay a lot more too. We traded in a second hand seat we had been given for the first Maxi Cosi Priori to get some discount and it was a really old one that was hardly padded so this one must be a lot more comfy to sit in. It seems extravagant to buy three but we do use them all (but not at once) and will need two shortly anyway (ooh cryptic! Not really...) so it saves a little time swapping the seat from car to car. We decided that we might as well stick to the one we had been happy with and that's why we went again for this one. The colour black is a little boring but suits either sex and doesn't show up the dirt too much!

Final word
I would recommend this car seat to anyone seeking a stage two seat. It is relatively easy to install and easy to get your child in and out of, much better on the back than the stage one seats! They are costly but what price can you put on your child's safety?