Maximum Comfort (Maxi Cosi Rodi XR)

Member Name: mosaic369

Product:	Maxi Cosi Rodi XR
Date:	07/07/09 (605 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: solid, safe, good fit, stylish

Disadvantages: belt-loop too tight

The Maxi Cosi Rodi XR is a group 2/3 high-back booster seat suitable for children weighing between 15-36 kg (about 3.5 years - 12 years). Both our previous car seats, group 0 and group 1, were Maxi Cosi models and, as we were very satisfied with them, we decided to stick with this brand for the next stage up.

I was agonising for weeks over the decision to transfer our son from the safety of his old seat that had its own integral five-point harness into a booster seat which uses an adult seatbelt. Unfortunately, I'd seen a number of crash test videos showing how unsafe some of these booster seats can be for young children. But I had no choice, as he was getting dangerously close to the weight limit of 18kg for his group 1 seat - I had to make a quick decision about buying a new one. I searched the Internet for days trying to find a group 2 seat with a five-point integral harness - well, I can tell you now, it doesn't exist. The only model I could find was a special needs seat made by Britax costing upwards of 600 pounds. That wasn't an option, so we just had to take the plunge and order a regular high-back booster. In the end, I chose the Maxi Cosi Rodi XR, as we trusted the brand and it had good reviews all over the Internet.

The seat itself is quite light and easy to fit. In fact, there's not much to do in terms of fitting, just place it onto the backseat (I would never put my child on the front seat at this age!) and thread the seatbelt through the loop at the top. You actually fit the child into the seat rather than fit the seat into the car. It is the child's weight and the seatbelt together that will keep the seat in place. Always follow the instructions in the manual on how to do this properly.

My concerns about the safety of these types of seats have vanished eventually when I saw my son strapped into his Maxi Cosi XR. He always looks quite snug and comfortable in it. Even when he falls asleep, the seat keeps him firmly in place and the side wings support his head, although on a number of occasions I had to push his head back into the seat (obviously, when I wasn't driving!). This seat has a recline function, but we've never had a chance to use it. The problem is, you're supposed to recline the seat before you put your child in and most children would want to sit upright at the start of the journey, and you can't do anything once they are asleep. That's a definite disadvantage, and makes me wonder whether we should have bought the SPS version, which is much cheaper. The SPS comes without the recline function, but otherwise looks very much the same as the XR.

Another disadvantage is the tightness of the loop which the belt threads through. It is a bit of a struggle every time we want to swap the seat between our cars, so we tend not to do it very often. I fear, if we did it regularly, the seatbelt might get damaged and become unsafe with all that tugging. There's certainly place for improvement in this aspect. This is the only reason I will give this seat a 4-star rating instead of a 5-star one. Otherwise, I'm very happy with this car seat.

Some other features of the Maxi Rodi XR include a height-ajdustable headrest and width-adjustable side wings. The backrest is completely detachable, so it easily converts into a stage 3 booster seat as your child grows. The cover is removable and machine washable. It comes in various colour schemes. We have the Phantom version, which is in different shades of grey to match our car interior. The Maxi Cosi Rodi will fit most cars. We have a Volvo 850 and a Volvo V70 and it seems to fit both cars fine. The seat also has an attachment, which you can use to anchor the top of the seat to the headrest in your car. We've never used this as it makes swapping the seats even more difficult, but according to the manual, this doesn't affect the safety performance of the seat.

We bought the Maxi Cosi Rodi XR for £74.00 from the notorious Two Left Feet, who have since gone out of business (see my earlier review). It is currently available from Kiddicare for £76.00. The SPS version costs only around £50-£55. I'm considering buying an SPS for our other car, so we don't have to keep swapping all the time.

Summary: Highly recommended