The best car seat is the one that fits your child, vehicle, budget, and lifestyle and has features that are important to you. The safest car seat is the one you can install correctly and use properly on every ride! Let us know in the comment section what questions you have about this review of the Maxi Cosi Romi convertible car seat.
Maxi Cosi Romi Car Seat Review (USA)
The Maxi Cosi Romi convertible car seat can rear-face most children to at least two years old, has flame-retardant-free fabric, and is both narrow and super lightweight. For families looking for a travel-friendly car seat, a backup for the babysitter, or simply the most cost-effective option, this amazing little car seat might be the one! Find out with this thorough Maxi Cosi Romi Car Seat Review!
Type
A convertible car seat that can be used rear-facing and forward-facing
When
From birth or after you’ve used an infant seat for a few months
Age
Our recommendation: Newborn until the seat is outgrown (average 2-4 years old)
What you need to know before you go.
Rear-Facing Seat Stats
- height limit: 19-40″
- weight limit: 5-40 pounds
- head height rules: at least 1″ below the top of the shell
- Newborn fit: good
Forward-Facing Seat Stats
- height limit: 29-43″
- weight limit: 22-40 pounds
- head height rules: ears must be below the top of the shell
- Highest Harness Height: 13.5″
Other Seat Stats
- width of seat: 17”
- weight of seat: 7.8 pounds
- crash replacement policy: replace after a moderate or severe crash
- expiration: 8 years
- harness: rethread
- lock-off: no
- cup holders: 1 (optional/dishwasher-safe)
✅ Seat is good for you if:
✅ You want to use a convertible car seat from birth.
Although some adjustments to the harness straps are required (you can find instructions in the manual), the Maxi Cosi Romi fits newborns well. We recommend removing the adjustable head pillow, as it tends to cause chin-to-chest issues in newborns.
✅ You need to fit 3 people in one row of the vehicle.
The Maxi Cosi Romi is 17″ wide. If you need to fit 3 across in your vehicle, this is a good option to try since it’s one of the narrowest car seats out there!
✅ You often travel via Uber/Lyft/taxi.
The Maxi Cosi Romi weighs just 7.8 pounds, so once your child outgrows an infant seat, this is one of the best options to tote around with you. You can easily attach it to a stroller handle with a bungee cord. We have also found that it works well with the Mountain Buggy Nano Stroller in the seat itself.
✅ You frequently fly with your child.
After your child has outgrown the infant seat, this may be a great next step for you if you fly frequently. It’s lightweight at 7.8 pounds, and it’s narrow as well, so it works on any plane. The top tether is attached to the car seat shell in a way that turns it into a convenient carry strap. This makes it easy to carry around at your destination if you are using Uber or Lyft. It’s a fan favorite of our Wheels Up private Facebook group members!
🚩 Use Caution If:
🚩Your baby is above the 90th percentile in height or weight.
The Maxi Cosi Romi will allow most babies to rear-face until they turn two years old, which is the minimum age to turn forward-facing. However, it may not last much longer than the second birthday for bigger kids. Due to the weight limit (40 pounds), height limit (40 inches), and head height limit of 1 inch below the seat’s shell, parents of bigger littles will likely need to replace this car seat sooner rather than later.
🚩You plan to use this seat forward-facing too
We recommend maxing out the limits of your rear-facing car seat before switching to forward-facing. After all, rear-facing is the safest way to ride, and you can learn more about why here! Due to this car seat’s height, weight, and harness height limits, when you max it out rear-facing, you have nearly maxed out the forward-facing limits as well. When your child reaches the rear-facing limits, and they are at minimum two years old, and you plan to switch them forward-facing, purchase a forward-facing only combination (harness and high-back booster) seat. We can help you find the best in our Forward-Facing and Booster Buying Kit.
️ Stand Out Features:
It’s fairly compact rear-facing.
While not the most compact seat on the market, its shorter shell means it does not take up much more space than many infant seats.
It’s lightweight.
The Maxi Cosi Romi weighs only 7.8 lbs, making it one of the lightest car seats in the category of convertible car seats. Yes, that’s as light as many infant car seats! Its small size makes moving this seat from place to place easy. Since it is so lightweight, it is possible to install this seat with the lower anchors for the entire time you use the seat. The lower anchors on this seat are the basic, hook-style connectors. If you find those difficult to use, you can always install the seat with the seat belt instead.
You are looking for a seat that is free of flame-retardant chemicals.
The Maxi Cosi Romi features Maxi Cosi’s PureCosi fabric, which is free of fire-retardant chemicals. Unlike many flame-retardant-free fabrics from other manufacturers, this one does not use wool. The fabric is machine washable and dryer-safe as well. For more information on car seats and flame retardants, check out this post.
▶️ YouTube Videos:
⚠️ Quirks to be Aware Of:
⚠️ Use the inside-out trick to install.
The Maxi Cosi Romi doesn’t have any fancy features to make installation easier, but that’s okay if you know this installation technique! Whether you’re installing with lower anchors or the vehicle seatbelt, pull the car seat cover up off one of the sides and tighten from inside the belt path. With the inside-out trick, this car seat can be securely installed in no time!
⚠️ It’s usually outgrown forward-facing before it’s outgrown rear-facing.
The top harness height is only 13.5.” Many kids can use it longer rear-facing than forward-facing. This is because the harness should be at or below the shoulders when rear-facing but must be at or above when forward-facing.
⚠️ It only has one allowed recline.
There is a line on the side of the seat that must be level with the ground. This means that it is very reclined, even for older children.
✈️ Airplane Use
The Maxi Cosi Romi is an FAA-approved car seat. It’s a very lightweight car seat, making it a popular travel car seat option. Because it is so lightweight, you can bungee it to your stroller, use a car seat strap, attach it to your carry-on suitcase, or use a travel cart to maneuver through the airport! It is narrow, so you may not even need to put the airplane armrests up for it to fit. For help with all things airplane travel and car seats, check out our Wheels Up Course and private Facebook group.
SITS Bottom Line
The Maxi Cosi Romi is lightweight, narrow, has flame-retardant-free fabric, and can be used from birth. It’s a great option for many people as an everyday car seat and one for frequent travelers who want an easier-to-travel-with option.
Other Versions/Similar Seats:
- Cosco Scenera Next DLX* (no flame-retardant-free fabric)
- Cosco Scenera Next Deluxe* (no flame-retardant-free fabric)
- Cosco Scenera Next* (no flame-retardant-free fabric or harness covers)
- Cosco Scenera Next (Canada)* (no flame-retardant-free fabric or harness covers)
*A SITS recommended seat. Recommended seats are in our Buying Kits because they have ranked high on our vehicle, child, ease of use, and features scale.
Compare Car Seats
Looking to compare car seats and narrow down the best car seat for your family? The Convertible Car Seat Buying Kit walks you through our 7Cs of selection, then on to an interactive quiz, and finally, a recommended car seat list is generated just for you! If you are overwhelmed and sick of spending hours researching and reading car seat reviews like this one, the Buying Kit will guide you to Safe in the Seat’s recommended car seats for you in under 30 minutes!
We check every day for our recommended car seats on sale, and we have all the deals here for you. Shopping in Canada? Find today’s seat sales in Canada here.
What About Seats We Don’t Recommend?
Just like anyone, we have preferences! This goes for car seats, too. If we don’t recommend a car seat, it’s not because it’s unsafe for your little one. All car seats are safe if they’re installed and used properly, are not expired or damaged, and when they’re made and sold by a reputable manufacturer and/or retailer. Click here for our full list of car seats that we do not recommend.
A note about crash-tests
What are the Maxi Cosi Romi safety ratings?
Well, that’s a great question. We know it passes the strict federally required testing for all car seats sold in the United States. But we don’t know exactly how it performs. That data isn’t released by any official sources in the US — not by car seat manufacturers, government agencies like NHTSA, or anywhere!
A few third-party websites claim to offer objective crash test data that compares car seats. But here at Safe in the Seat, we ignore that data for a few reasons. First of all, third-party car seat crash tests don’t actually give us meaningful data! Car seat manufacturers crash-test their products hundreds, even upwards of a thousand times. They crash test the finished product in every single installation configuration using every applicable-sized crash test dummy, not to mention a whole lot of testing at each stage of the development process too. So, limited testing completed by another organization just can’t give the same level of information! One or two crash tests fail to represent the overall average performance of any car seat across its lifespan.
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