Review | Maxi-Cosi Pebble Plus Car Seat

For the last six months, this guy has been our constant companion:

Um, I’m talking about the car seat, by the way, not the baby inside it. And, I mean, HIM TOO, obviously, but yeah: everywhere Max has gone, the Maxi-Cosi Pebble Plus has gone too. They’re so inseparable, in fact, that they even share a name. Almost. Sort of. I feel I should make it crystal clear here that we did NOT name our son after a car seat, although I HAVE been waiting six months now to make a feeble joke about how our Maxi-Cosi keeps Max(i) cosy, but… I’ll quit while I’m ahead here, shall I?

As I was saying, our car seat of choice is the Maxi-Cosi Pebble Plus, and I’ll just go ahead and spoiler my own review by telling you upfront that I have only good things to say about it. I think picking a car seat is a pretty big deal for a lot of new parents, purely because, a) it’s expensive, and, b) it’s too important a purchase to get wrong, isn’t it? We looked at a ton of different seats, but ended up choosing the Pebble Plus based on the recommendation of a few different friends, who’d used the same model and loved it. We also got the ISOFIX base for it, to make it easier to get it in and out of the car, and, after a bit of thought, my parents bought one for their car, too, so that when they’re looking after Max, they can just use our car seat to take him out and about without any hassle.

The seat itself comes in 9 different colourways: we went for ‘Nomad Grey’, because we’re exactly the kind of assholes who think, “But which colour will go best with the car?” and by “we”, I’m obviously talking about myself here. In retrospect, part of me thinks we should have gone with “sparkling grey”, but the the other part thinks, “No, you were right the first time, Amber, because the Nomad Grey looks better with the wheel base.” And it does.

Speaking of the wheel base, this actually came with our pram, but the Pebble Plus is a multi-tasker if ever I saw one, so it just clips right on to dem wheels. I have to be honest – this is how Max travels 98% of the time: we’ll optimistically put the pram or stroller attachment for these wheels in the car boot any time we’re going out, but then he’ll fall asleep in the car seat, and we won’t want to wake him up when we get to our destination, so it’s just easier all round to lift it out of the car and wheel it away. Which is why a large number of my more spontaneous outfit Instas now look like this:

(That red thing you can see, by the way, is a footmuff – which is a bit of weird name for it, tbh, because it doesn’t just cover the baby’s feet, but his whole body, being essentially a sleeping bag that fits perfectly inside the Pebble Plus. He’s obviously not using this now that it’s so hot, but it was a Godsend during the winter/early spring – so much easier than having to tuck blankets around him and then having to keep on adjusting them!)

As for the safety aspect, which is, of course, the most important thing – well, it’s thankfully not been put to the test, in a real-life situation (And I hope it never is…), but we did a lot of reading before picking the Pebble Plus, though, and were happy that it conforms with all of the latest i-size safety regulations. The deciding factor in this respect, though, was that one of the friends who recommended it to us is a police officer who’s spent a large part of his career in the road traffic division: the Pebble Plus is what he bought for his kids when they were born, and that was good enough for us. From a totally non-scientific viewpoint, meanwhile, I’m happy with how sturdy it feels – or as happy as a totally neurotic new mum can be, anyway. I mean, obviously I’d prefer him to travel in an armoured tank or something, but given that Terry vetoed that particular purchase, I guess a decent car seat is the next best thing, right? I also, however, like the fact that, when you click the car seat into the base, a green light comes on to reassure you that it is, in fact, securely attached, and that has saved me no end of worry, as well as making sure that Terry doesn’t have to endure constant questions about whether he’s absolutely, positively, 100% sure it’s safely attached, so that’s good, too.

Which leaves us with just one problem:

He’s almost outgrown it.

(Also, awesome work with that bib, dude! I promise you were dressed cute underneath it…)

The Pebble Plus is suitable for babies measuring up to 75cm in length. Max is currently 69cm (I know this because Terry measures him on the regular. I mean, people normally think I’m the neurotic one in this relationship, but all I’ll say is that I’m not the one who bought a baby scale so I could constantly re-assure myself that his weight-gain is on track…) to so we have a bit of time before we need to think about replacing it, but, well, the day is coming. Already, the Pebble Plus is starting to get too heavy to be carried easily while Max is in it, so we’re starting to think seriously about the next car seat – and that, of course, gives me all the feels, because, a) I’m an absolute idiot when it comes to things like this, and, b) We’ve made a lot of memories with this seat. It was the car seat my baby came home from the hospital in, and, since then, it’s gone absolutely everywhere with us:

So, Pebble Plus, we salute you, and all who sail in you. Well, Max who sails in you. Travels in you. Whatever. You’ve been a good and faithful servant, and we’ll never forget all you’ve done for us. Especially considering how many photos like this we have to remind us…