Maxi-Cosi Coral Infant Car Seat!

Choosing the car seat for your new baby is such an important purchase, a really big deal in fact and far more than simply going to a shop and picking the least expensive because they all do the same thing right?! Absolutely not the case, they don’t all do tthe same thing and in fact, as with other big baby purchases, choosing on price may leave you spending our more on the end. Buy the most inexpensive once and you’ll highly likely buy again so in my opinion it’s far more worth investing wisely to begin with.

I had a Maxi-Cosi Cabrio Fix with Florence and Jimmy, I used the same seat twice and then with Raffie we chose the same but bought a new one. I liked Maxi-Cosi and trusted them, the seat had always fared us well and it fit (with adaptors) on any buggy I’ve ever needed it to. However… With Raff I did realise that things may have moved on somewhat and looking at other people with their newborns in what looked far easier to use seats, I really wished I’d put a bit more thought into it. I also really wished I’d bought the isofix base. We still use the Cabriofix on our smaller car and it is an absolutely fine seat but there are things like the sun canopy that could be just a little bit better, swisher and make for an easier life.

So when Posie came home from the hospital it wasn’t in our old cabriofix but an all new Maxi-Cosi Coral which not only looks new age (it actually looks like Baby Yoda’s crib from the Mandalorian according to my 8 year old) but it also provides, I feel, a far greater level of comfort for the baby and indeed has more up to date technology to make it the easiest car seat it could possibly be! When it comes to maxi-cosi ALL their seats are designed to be the safest they could possibly be, this wasn’t about choosing a “safer option” but providing a little more ease I suppose.

The Coral is so easy to use that it makes taking Posie in the car much easier than otherwise it would be for she does NOT like to be in the car at all. She is a rarety I feel as most babies love being in motion and indeed we have had to take all our others out for countless drives in order to soothe them on occasions yet Posie is the exact opposite. She cries for most journeys (I’ve tried the other car seat too – just in case – it was the same) and I find the sheer thought of going out for a drive very stressful as a result. Thankfully getting her in this seat, which is super padded and cucoons her so that she is comfortable and safe (even if she’d rather be held) is breezy and the 5 point harness clicks without any effort (anyone who’s used a car seat with a 5 point harness will know this is a mean feat!). I think the inside looks more comfortable than a lot of seats, very padded with cushions in the right place, I mean if it was big enough then I’d get in myself and it really feels like she is able to lie down and properly sleep. When she sleeps! And when she DOES fall asleep she certainly looks like she’s in the cosiest seat!

Taking her to the car and getting her in it is made all the easier by the FamilyFix3, which connects to the ISOFIX anchors in your car. Put the Coral on the base and just click-and-go – it is really that simple and even tells you with green lights and beeps that the seat is installed correctly. Sometimes it hasn’t been and we know we have to adjust the anchor slightly to make it safe, without this how would you know?!

The seat itself has split functionality in that it allows you to leave the safety shell of the Coral in your car (the base of the seat) while you use the innovative lightweight soft carrier, which weighs only 1.7 kg without the newborn inlay, to go from one place to another with your baby. Yep, the soft bit of the seat lifts out so that you can carry the baby from car to shops or wherever and you don’t even have to lug the whole seat around – how good is that?! With this clever modular design, you can lift your little one ergonomically out of the safety shell in the car with just one hand and without any hassle – the soft handles on the side are retractable so you pull and lift, et voila! The detachable soft carrier then clicks back in easily with audio-visual indicators to confirm correct and safe usage.

This seat doesn’t have to be used with an ISOFIX base (FastFix3) however so if your car doesn’t have compatibility anchorage you simply use the seat belt to secure it. I’ve never used ISOFIX style connection with an infant car seat before as we didn’t have the correct anchorage but I have to say now that I have, I’d sooner buy a new car than not make use of the benefit!

The Coral is designed to keep you close to the baby which is exactly where I want to be with a newborn and this innovative, one of a kind technology for an infant car seat is quite something else. The split functionality of the car seat with a hard base and a detachable soft carrier is quite mesmerising when I think of car seats with my first.

So what else is great about this particular Maxi-Cosi?! There are many plus points (not JUST the Baby Yoda thing either) including the sun canopy which reaches far further than most I’ve seen or used. This easy-to-adjust extra-large sun canopy will keep baby cool when it’s hot and sunny as well as blocking the glaring light from her sensitive eyes which is not only great for the car (I never find window shades that good to be honest – they always fall off never QUITE fitting the windows properly) but also for when it it attached to your buggy for a travel system. I’ve not bought any new adaptors and am using the same ones I had for my Cabriofix which mean I’ve been able to use this car seat with my Bugaboo Bee, Stokke Xplory and Egg Quail so far – she often goes to sleep towards the very end of a journey and being able to not have to transfer her into a bassinet (especially after she’s been crying) for a quick jaunt around the shops is perfect as it eliminates the crying on the return journey. You can also buy extras to make the travel system work for you more regularly as they offer rain covers, mosquito nets and foot muffs which are compatible for example. Of course the FamilyFix3 is a must have as far as I’m concerned. I just love how green lights and beeps tell me the baby is safe in her seat anchorage (as she cries for most of a journey at least getting her in and out is made easy)!

The other day Posie cried so much in the car and got so angry and beside herself that she was, despite not really being a sickie baby, sick in her seat. Any parent will tell you the sick in a car seat scenario is as much a heart sink to stomach moment as the sound that tells you the entire LEGO box just got tipped out… However, this cover is easily removable and machine washable. My old Cabriofix was phenomenally hard to get the covers back on after a wash (I mean so I’m told, my Mum always did those sort of washes for me in case I mucked them up) but this one even I can do!

All in, what an excellent choice for a car seat! There’s only one thing I’d say that could make this better and that would be to have the 360 turning option like I have with Raffie’s next stage up seat – of course Maxi-Cosi DO make this option too and right now it’s only £20 more. All the benefits of this Coral the Coral 360 also allows a other added easy option in that you can turn the seat to face you as you put baby in and out. Well, that just makes it near on perfect I reckon!

A car seat for a new baby is one of the most important purchases you shall make. It’s not something you “might” use, you will probably use it daily so it has to be right. It has to be chosen with great care and having got to baby number 4 I think I can allow myself a tiny bit of authority and say categorically that a car seat like this one is going to make your life much easier – on top of how Maxi-Cosi is a brand you know you can trust from a safety aspect which is all we really need for our children after all!

I was gifted the Maxi-Cosi Coral.