Maxi-Cosi Peri 180

The Maxi-Cosi Peri 180 is a rotating infant car seat with a swivel feature for ease in loading and unloading the child and harnessing. While the swivel is convenient overall, the seat needs to be rotated to the side in order to move the carrier on and off of the base, which can be less convenient. Although the labels and instructions are excellent, achieving a secure fit can be challenging. The tension indicators that are designed to help are difficult to use, don’t consistently work, and are only for seat belt installations. Additionally, the recline indicator is a line on a curved surface of the carrier, making it very difficult to read. The Peri 180 features PureCosi, which are fabrics without wool or added flame retardants.

Consumer Reports has developed a new crash test that offers consumers comparative performance information on which car seats could provide an additional margin of safety when compared with other models within the same ratings group that have been subjected to the same test protocol. Our Crash Protection Ratings are based on injury criteria measured on standardized child-size dummies, contact of the dummy’s head with the back of a simulated front seat and a car seat’s ability to remain intact during the course of testing. Consumer Reports’ new crash tests are not designed to check whether a seat complies with current federal car seat safety standards. Rather, the purpose of our new tests is to differentiate the seats’ performance on a scale that ranks the performance of tested seats ranging from “basic” to “best.” Our focus on providing an “extra margin” of safety, rather than on determining whether a seat is safe or not, is based on the fact that any car seat sold in the U.S. already must provide an essential level of safety under the government standards. The new test conditions were carefully designed to simulate the interior environment and forces encountered during a crash in contemporary vehicles. Changes from the way that convertible seats were rated previously include using a test bench that better simulates the vehicle seat design from a contemporary vehicle, with more representative cushion stiffness and seat geometry and incorporation of a “blocker” to simulate a front seatback. The new test also runs at a higher 35mph speed, with other representative dynamic characteristics that better simulate the behavior of contemporary vehicles during a crash.

The Maxi-Cosi Peri 180 is part of the Car Seats test program at Consumer Reports. In our lab tests, Infant Car Seats models like the Peri 180 are rated on multiple criteria, such as those listed below.

Maximum weight: The maximum weight of a child that a model will accommodate.

Ease of use: Includes the clarity of instructions, installing the seat, adjusting harness positions, placing a child in the seat, securing the harness, and removing the child.

Fit-to-vehicle LATCH: A rating of how easy it is to securely and correctly install each seat using the LATCH system in a variety of vehicles and how well the seats fit each vehicle once installed.