Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Review

Buying a car seat is one of the most important purchases when having a baby. Safety is front of mind with many things you buy for your baby and perhaps there is nothing where it is more important than a car seat.

The difficulty is that there are so many different options in terms of car seats. Many different safety tests, different ages, different unique selling points. It’s really not an easy purchase. After a lot of thought as our second stage car seat (we bought the Kiddy Evoluna I-Size for when N was a newborn) we decided to buy the Joie Spin 360 Car Seat (website here).

Based on my review I’m giving this a five out of five rating overall.

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – The Basics

Joie 360
Joie 360 front on

So, it’s a car seat. Aren’t they all pretty much the same but with a few little differences?

Certainly not this car seat.

The main feature that sold it to us was the 360 functionality. It was getting increasingly difficult to easily put N in his Kiddy Evoluna I-Size due to it not moving but him very much moving! It was just plain awkward. As such, having a car seat that spins to allow us to easily put him in made so much sense.

Also, think about when they’re a bit bigger. Much easier when they are heavier or getting in themselves to have a seat that spins.

“But you don’t have to have them facing backwards past 15 months…” I hear you cry. As such, why would you need one that spins like that? Bit easier to put the child in when it’s facing forwards isn’t it?

It’s a good point, and that is indeed the law. They must be rear facing until 15 month (under current law at least!).

However, there is a lot of guidance out there to suggest it’s best if children rear face until the age of four. Now I’m not going to take you through all of the guidance and explain it to you, this is a review of a car seat. However, I’d research this yourself. The safety of doing this makes complete sense to me, and it’s law in some parts of the world. As such, having a car seat that a 3 year old can climb into that faces backwards is important to us.

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Usability 5/5

Joie 360
Joie 360 facing backwards

Now with the model we have there is one challenge in particular which would make it 4/5 but in preparation for this review I’ve seen that they have now changed the design to eradicate that, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

There are a number of elements to how usable a car seat is, such as how easy is it to fit in the car? How easy is it to put the child in the seat? How easy is it to use the harness? But how well does the Joie Spin 360 Car Seat perform?

Well this seat scores highly on all counts.

It comes in one piece and slots onto the Isofix connections. Then a very short bit of work and the leg is in place too. I’m literally talking a few minutes and that’s it. It’s relatively heavy and so a bit awkward to get in and manoeuvre but I don’t mind that. If it was light I’d question the quality.

In terms of putting the baby in the seat I really can’t see how it would be easier for this kind of seat. The whole point of the 360 spin functionality is to make it easy, and it really is! Top marks! On the seats we have though the button to be able to spin the car seats is in a bit of an awkward position. It’s down the front of the Joie seat next to the back of the actual seat of the car. In one of our cars there’s not much room to shove your hand down to push the button unfortunately. We can do it but it’s awkward.

Now however they have changed it so the button is on the side. Much better!!

The harness is very easy to use. The harness goes over the shoulders, over the legs and the clasp comes between the legs. However it’s only three points that need to be connected together, and if you give yourself some slack in the harness this is easy, even with a wriggling baby.

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Convenience 5/5

Joie 360
Joie 360 can spin forwards as well as backwards

It really couldn’t be much better to be honest. The fact that it spins makes putting your child in the car seat so much easier. I’ve mentioned the button which is not convenient on the model we have but is so much better on the new version.

The fact it comes in one piece is great too. It’s not the lightest thing in the world but it is easy to fit in your Isofix.

It’s suitable to be rear facing until the age of four which is great for those of us listening to the guidance rather than the law. It comes with many different fittings too so you can adjust the seat as your child grows which is fab as you can start using it from birth too.

The seat also tilts. This is a great feature for those slightly longer car journeys when you want your little one to sleep. I’ll be honest, it’s not a massive tilt but we’re not exactly creating a bed here, the most important thing is safety so they will always need the head rest behind them, not under them (if they were lying flat). It’s certainly noticeable though, and N can easily sleep in his! Honestly we just leave it constantly in the tilt position. Why not?

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Quality 5/5

I have no way to fault the quality of this car seat. I have to say that if I ever found a car seat with even the slightest quality issue I wouldn’t touch it with a barge pole. There’s only so much you can see so if you find an issue in what you can see who knows what else there is wrong!

However, this is perfect, in every quality measure.

The way it locks onto the Isofix. Perfect.

The clipping together of the harness. Perfect.

The smooth spinning of the seat. Perfect.

There’s genuinely nothing wrong with the quality of this car seat at all.

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Value 3/5

I’ll be honest, this is expensive. There’s no getting away from it. I’ve just seen on Amazon that it’s £285.99 currently. We certainly didn’t pay that, keep your eyes peeled and you’ll be able to get a good deal, you just may have to wait a bit. I think we got ours from Halfords for about £150 and a second one from Boots for a similar price.

It is expensive, hence giving it three out of five. However, do shop around as just having a quick look now there is a wide variety of prices, down to £199.99.

Joie Spin 360 Car Seat – Summary

This is a fantastic car seat, there’s no getting away from that. In fact it’s so good we got two, and we don’t regret it at all. The car seat really is so easy to install and use. The quality is very high, and most importantly my son feels safe.

Yes, it’s expensive, but in my opinion you get what you pay for. If you can afford it I wouldn’t hesitate.

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