Mothercare Madrid Group 1 Combination Car Seat Unboxing

 

We recently upgraded our car seat to the Mothercare Madrid Combination Car Seat and thought we'd share with you our unboxing and first impressions of it, just like we did with our pram. 

Having used our Maxi Cosi Group 0 rear facing car seat for 7 months, we thought it was time to upgrade to a forward facing Group 1 model because Harry had grown too long and wide for the Maxi Cosi. 

My Requirements

Before buying the Mothercare Madrid car seat, I didn't really have a particular brand/model in mind that I wanted. All I knew was that I wanted a car seat that was comfortable, affordable and one that would fit in my 3 door Vauxhall Corsa. This ticks all those boxes. 

Official Blurb

The Mothercare Madrid Combination Car Seat is an easy-to-fit rear and forward-facing car seat that your child can use from birth to 18kgs (approximately 4 years), offering great value, comfort and safety protection.

• Use rear facing from birth to 9kg/20lbs then move to forward facing
• Use forward facing from 9 months to 4 years approx. (9kg/20lbs to 18kg/40lbs)
• Includes 3 seat recline positions and a 5-point harness with individual harness tensioners for added safety
• Deep wide wings with side impact protection and a body support cushion for younger children, with a head cushion and chest and buckle pads for comfort
• Free 2 year guarantee
• 
  

Price

We bought the Mothercare Madrid car seat in the January sales and managed to get it with 50% off making it £44.99 rather than £90.00. What an absolute steal. This car seat is amazing quality. Even if I'd paid full price I have to say I wouldn't have been disappointed. We bought it in red (the discount only applied to red) but the colour is more raspberry pink than red. I love it. 

Comfort 

When I made this video unboxing our Mothercare Madrid car seat I hadn't tried Harry in it yet. Since then I have and it's great. He looks so much more comfortable and secure in it than he did in the rear facing Maxi Cosi. 

The straps lock together very securely and quickly on this seat. When it comes to tightening the harness it is very easy (you just pull down on them) loosening them back off however seems a bit of a task. It could just be that they're new and a bit stiff though so will have to give it some time to really see. 

The seat also has something like three different recline settings so in terms of comfort I really could;t fault this car seat so far. It also comes with a cream removable inlay which is washable. This can be no bad thing. 

Installation 

When I first opened the instruction booklet for this seat I thought 'oh my god, there's 43 steps'. However, not all 43 steps applied to me. This seat can be used firstly as a rear facing car seat from birth, and then flipped round to be forward facing when the child reaches 20lb. As we are using the seat forward facing straight away, it could be fitted in about 5 steps and it is really very simple. 

My only issue with the instructions as I mentioned in my You Tube video, is that it is just pictures with no added text for explanation, call it a preference thing but a bit of extra written guidance wouldn't have gone a miss for me.

Use with Small Car

Okay, small cars cause problems when it comes to baby equipment. I know, as you'll have seen if you saw this updated post on trying to fit my pram in it. 

So far I can say that it is about 1000 times easier to get Harry out of this forward facing car seat than it was when he was rear facing. That goes with the territory though. The design of the Mothercare car seat is however relatively compact. 

I mean I pretty much think I could still get two passengers in the back with only a bit of a squeeze. The front passenger seat can also go almost all of the way back too without being near the front of the car seat so not too bad considering it's only a 3 door. 

Overall Impressions

I rate this car seat so far. As car seats go I think this one looks pretty cool but more importantly it's comfortable for Harry, I can fit it safely into my car and it was very, very affordable as we were fortunate enough to nab it while it was still in the sale. Thumbs up. 

Any questions please fell free to ask in the comments :)


Thanks for reading

Kathy
xx