See all Motoring AdviceWelcome to our new series of Carzone car seat reviews.
Our recent Carzone Motoring Report revealed that one in six parents are unaware of the latest recommendation to keep your children in rear-facing car seats for as long as possible. Statistics reveal that these seats can be up to five times safer than forward-facing ones. This is particularly important for children under the age of two, with options available now which make it possible to keep children rear-facing up to the age of six or seven. The rear-facing position is believed to provide better protection for a child's head, neck, and spine during a collision. In a front-facing car seat, the child's head is restrained by the harness and can move forward more abruptly, potentially resulting in increased stress on the neck and spine. For this reason, we’ve decided to focus on these models and help to spread awareness of their safety benefits, while also painting a realistic idea of what they are like to live with.
Model reviewed: Axkid Movekid
Dimensions: Width: 44 cm Height: 65 cm Depth: 54 cm
Max weight/height: 36kg / 125 cm
RRP: €449
What’s an Axkid?
Axkid is a Swedish car seat brand renowned for its commitment to child safety. Specializing in rear-facing designs, Axkid prioritizes extended rear-facing travel for enhanced protection of young passengers. The brand stands out for its rigorous testing and adherence to stringent safety standards, providing parents who wish to rear face for an extended period of time with a practical and usable range of car seats to help keep kids rear facing well beyond the regulatory 15 month period.
The Movekid is based on the Minikid platform, a range of models well known for their compact design and spacious shells that can accommodate taller children without impacting too much on space in the front.
Safety Features
The Movekid is R129 approved and Swedish Plus Tested which means it not only complies with current regulations, it has also undergone one of the most rigorous safety testing regimes and toughest collision tests in the world. It also comes equipped with Axkid’s Side Impact Protection (ASIP), engineered to enhance safety in the event of side collisions. According to Axkid, every component, through buckle to belt, is tested beyond regulations, which should offer peace of mind for parents and caregivers carrying around their most precious cargo.
Space requirements
Rear-facing car seats are in many cases larger and longer than forward facing ones and so one might expect them to take up more room in the back than alternatives such as high back boosters. When it comes to width however, they generally offer a more flexible set up, particularly if more than one car seat is involved. These seats are mostly belted in, rather than fitted with Isofix and so allow a little more room for manoeuvre in a three-in-a-row set up. When it comes to legroom and the space they take up behind the seats in front – in many cases they require the same amount of room as a forward facing seat, once you take into account the 55cm ‘survival gap’ required for front facing seats. This is the distance required between the back of the base of the car seat and the back of the front seat to ensure a safe fit and prevent your child from hitting the front seat in the event of an accident.
We fitted the Movekid in a number of different cars including a Skoda Octavia (2011), Audi Q5 (2023), Kia Sportage (2024) and a Toyota Yaris Cross (2023), with the latter the only one in which it had a significantly detrimental impact on front seat passenger legroom. It’s an impressively narrow seat which offers more options when it comes to fitting three car seats in a row (although this will still depend on the car and the other seats in the picture).
Who is it for?
The Movekid promises an extended rear facing journey of up to 36kg, 125cm, or roughly six or seven years of age for most children. It also comes in at a lower price point than the Minikid range, a crucial point for parents looking to get on board with rear-facing, because unfortunately, most of these seats don’t come cheap. However, they do offer impressive longevity and are safe to use immediately after your child has outgrown their infant carrier (approximately 12 – 15 months of age) right up to the upper limits of the seats weight and height limit. Essentially it should be the second last seat you ever have to buy before a high back booster, which may help to soften the blow somewhat.
Installation
As with most extended rear facing seats, installation requires a few more steps than an Isofix model. It must be installed with a seatbelt, leg support, and tethers. A handy QR code is printed on the side of the seat with a full step by step installation video with clear instructions that are easy to follow.
The seatbelt installation is made simple thanks to the easily accessible zipped flap under the harness that requires no adjustment to the headrest or harness. This creates easy access for threading the belt through, which can be one of the fiddlier parts to negotiate with other seats.
The support leg comes with a guide to help achieve the right angle. The tethers then need to be fastened to the back of the seat and manually tightened after they have been looped and secured under the front seat rails. It might sound like a bit of a rigmarole at first, but it gets easier once you get familiar with the process. The rock solid fit once you’ve mastered the technique makes it all feel worthwhile. We would also recommend availing of the ‘Check it fits’ service by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) for added peace of mind.
As with most seats in this category, it’s not the easiest task to switch between cars. Once the fit has been checked, it’s probably best to leave it in that position if at all possible. If you do need to move it regularly, we would recommend investing in a second set of tethers to shorten the installation process and leave enough time to ensure correct installation every time.
Comfort features
The Movekid comes with a retractable recline support to allow extra legroom for taller children, as well as a removeable insert for smaller children between 61 – 105cm tall. The self-adjusting harness allows for easy adjustment as your child grows, as lifting the headrest will also lift the harness at the same time with no need for rethreading.
The fabric is hardwearing and breathable. It’s also washable, quick-drying, and easy to remove and replace.
It doesn’t feel especially padded once the infant support cushion has been removed and so may not seem particularly plush for an older child. This may be one of the trade-offs against its tidy dimensions. However, our four year old (107cm) tester had no complaints, especially with the recline support in place which gave him even more room to stretch out.
One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to rear-facing tends to be the perceived lack of legroom and concerns around taller kids’ legs being squashed in this position. Much of the time, these worries are unwarranted as children are naturally a lot more flexible than adults. If you’ve ever watched a toddler enjoy a TV show whilst hanging upside off a sofa, you’ll understand that their idea of comfort can be quite different to ours.
Most children will be happy to either cross their legs or simply rest them in an upward direction against the backseat.
Summary
The decades of engineering that Axkid have put in to their Extended Rear Facing range is evident in every aspect of the Movekid. It somehow manages to be both extremely compact but surprisingly roomy, and actually easier to find space for than many forward-facing or spinning alternatives.
With a starting price of €449, it’s a hefty investment, but one that offers great longevity and flexibility. Some competitors offer extra padding which might feel more suitable for a younger baby, but they generally take up a good deal more space in the cabin too.
When it comes to the best mix of safety, practicality and flexibility, the Axkid Movekid will be a hard one to beat and already feels like the benchmark in this extended rear-facing segment.