Customer Reviews

Maxi-Cosi Tobi Group 1 Car Seat (Total Black)

Short and Sweet review - I cannot recommend this seat highly enough for safety. My 2 year old was in the back of our car when we were hit in the rear at a speed of 40-50mph. The car is a write off and i suffered severe bruising and whip lash (in the drivers seat) but my little girl came away with no damage at all. You always ask yourself why you spend that bit extra on a car seat and now i know why. We now have to replace this car seat as although it has no obvious damage the insurance company told us to replace it and we will definitely purchasing another 'Tobi'

Bought this seat for my 9 month old after some research on the internet. Previous seat (infant carrier) was also maxi-cosi and I was happy with the brand.

It is reasonably easy to fit (once I was shown how to use my knees to secure it whilst tightening the car seat belt)! Once secure it is a great seat, easy to tighten and recline. I noted that you can only recline other brands before the child sits in the seat which seemed hopeless!

Have to say I also experienced the problem of the belts not tightening at same time however this was easily rectified by adjusting the belts at the back of the seat (the manual explains how to do this).

If you have bought this seat I would recommend you log on to the manufacturer website where they will send you a free attachment to stop crumbs getting into the belt tightening mechanism.

Only gripe with this seat is the price but you get what you pay for in the end and if you shop around you can get a good deal.

When choosing a car seat we wanted something that ticked all the boxes. In particular we saw my sister struggled getting her car seat secure in the car when fitting, mainly due to having to feed the seat belt through the back of the seat. We have 2 cars so wanted something which we could move easily. This car seat does not disappoint, it is as simple as putting seat belt over the seat, putting in the holes at the top, pulling belt tight and fastening the tabs. Takes around a minute and requires average effort, certainly easier than my sisters.

The car seat appear very comfortable, my daughter sometimes takes to sitting in it when we've got it in the house so is a hit with her. Never once has she complained about it (she's nearly 3 and been in it since she was 1).

I'm also impressed how easy it is to adjust the headrest (2 seconds to pull out and move up or down), my sister commented on it when we took my niece out and had to move up, I think hers is a lot more difficult to adjust.

The recline feature is also very simple and straightforward for when they fall asleep in the car. I can adjust when I'm driving by simply reaching back with one hand and pulling the lever (again a 2 second job).

I also love the tightness indicator (turns from grey to green when tight enough). I see other reviews complaining about this and I can see where they're coming from. I found when I pull tight the indicator turns green, I believe most people are leaving it there which is the problem. I've found you then need to tug hard on the straps which will loosen the tension again. You need to repeat this process until the indicator stays green (usually only takes one pull and retighten). I have no issue whatsoever with this, I would always check the tension by hand anyway so no problem. I done this with her baby car seat also, not sure why, possibly in the manual?

Lastly, you could say we're lucky but approaching 3 years old my daughter did the inevitable and was sick in the seat. I considered taking out the back and blasting with the pressure washer but upon close inspection it is very easy to remove the cloth and hand wash. You'll also need to clean the plastic shell (which the pressure washer would never have done), it's amazing what you find inside (we found 5 clasps and plenty of raisins). Now I know how easy it is I will clean more often.

In summing up, I couldn't recommend highly enough.

EDIT: We've now had this product 3 years and are using it for our 2nd child. As was the case for many others the plastic at the bottom where the strap comes out (which you pull tight) broke making it more difficult to tighten (not impossible). That said we contacted Maxi Cosi who were very good about it (probably because it is a known issue) and fixed it for us for �15 (effectively we mainly just paid for the shipping, they picked up from our door and dropped it off again) so pretty good service. I've knocked a star off the review but still pretty happy with the seat, still seems better than most others on the market. The experience hasn't put us off buying another Maxi Cosi seat (Rodi) for our eldest who has now outgrown this seat. Both our children have never had any complaints about the Maxi Cosi seats, they certainly seem comfortable enough and both regularly doze off in theirs so can't be a bad thing.

Having had the maxi-cosi cabrio for the new born stage, which was an excellent car seat, we were confident that it was worth paying for the maxi cosi tobi for the next stage. We put our daughter in it from 10 months and still, 10 months later it is the one piece of equipment that I absolutely LOATHE and is sure to put me in a foul mood! The straps are designed to be easy to get the child's arms through but in actual fact mean that it is much more difficult to get them to fit closely to them and just normal floppy straps like the cabrio would have been much better. But my BIGGEST frustration with this seat is my daughter wriggles out of it soooo easily - I try tightening the straps as much as I can (this in itself is really difficult) and even then she can wriggle out - she does it on the roads in london but musch worse still, the motorway, and when I am driving alone it is a nightmare as I can't just pull over get out of the car and sort it out. And when I ever have done, she just wriggles out again. The straps are set quite wide so I think maybe the seat is better for when they are older as it is simply not safe. She is a stocky and above average in height 20 month old by the way!
I had seen reviews about the seat when I was originally researching it and seen that people had mentioned wriggling out but I stupidly chose to ignore it - PLEASE PLEASE get a different seat - you think you are doing the best for your child going for the pricey good quality one with the nead support but the design of the Tobi is NOT GOOD !
I might also mention that since whinging about it most other friends have said they have exactly the same problem with theirs and wish they'd bought a different one!!

This is a great car seat, good quality, well built and sturdy. The seat is tall enough to allow children to look out of the window and the recline function has just enough tilt to stop their heads bobbing so they can get to sleep easily.
The only reason I have given it a score of 4/5 is that in our Hyundai people carrier (Trajet) it dosnt fit the seats quite as well as I would like due to their height in comparison to the belt anchors. In the Audi A6 however it fits perfectly, the best non iso-fix seat we've ever used.
The child straps occasionally catch at the back too when tightening, but this is a matter of seconds to rectify.
Despite these two minor drawbacks I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this seat.

At almost 9 months our baby was ready to start in a proper car seat but being a first child we had no idea what to look for. The Which Guide gave us a few pointers and also recommended the Tobi, although friends recommended several other makes. Having visited our local baby store and tried several seats out, we chose the Tobi because it appeared easy to fit and adjust and to be very comfortable.

Neither my wife or I are particularly technically minded but we fitted it at first attempt and have had no problems in adjusting the harness or head rest to fit our baby. In fact it was so comfortable that she fell asleep within minutes of being first strapped in.

Our only gripe, if we have one, is that the seat doesn't recline as much as we expected, but this has had no impact on our baby's ability to travel long distances in comfort. The design of the seat also means that she has an excellent view out of the car window.

Bought this product for our 9 month old. Compared against the Maxi Cosi Priori it is well worth the extra pannies (even thogh its cheaper now than 1 month ago)!!
The seat is very comfortable, its easy to fit in, has additioanl headrestrainits which are very useful and adjustable and the easy relase strap function is so good, you just loosen the straps before you take the baby out, then putting him back in is a breeze.

I would higly recommned this car seat.

I already have one of these for my elder daughter and needed another for my son. Its a fantastic car seat. I spent ages researching it the first time round. If you go on the Maxi Cosi website it has one of the best safety ratings and both my children find it really comfortable. I love that you can tilt it back if the kids want to sleep and can adjust the headrest so it really grows with your child. You can detach all the fabric. I wasn't sure how it would be in the washing machine but had no choice and it came out pristine. Its not the easiest things to detach from the main frame to wash but that's probably not a bad thing as it means it is secure. Its really easy to fit with a seatbelt, it takes just a couple of minutes and is very secure. I like the fact that it is quite high as my kids can see out the window. My daughter has been happy in the Tobi for two years and I'd buy this one every time.

Our son is 8 months old and tall for his age so we moved him into this car seat a couple of weeks ago as he had outgrown the Maxi Cosi Pebble. He loves this seat! He loves that he is high up and can see out the window and mummy and daddy in the front seats. We have the seat fully reclined most of the time and he sleeps really well in the seat. We chose this seat as I do not have ISOFIX in my Mini Cooper and the seat fits really well.

I bought this Cat Seat for our 1 year old toddler. We are using it for more than 6 months and is still in perfect condition. My kid loves it.