what buggy?

chilledout

howdy all , chilled out junior arrives in may and need to get a buggy of some description, so far have looked at 3 or 4 different makes, the one i like is the loola it folds down uncomplicated and looks like it will fit handy enough into the boot of the car, anybody got any ideas on this make good or bad or recommened some other make. ta for all replies.:cool:

Jotter

I have quinny, great for walking, handy bec different bits clip on and off - eg car seat, easy to put up and down but wheels are too wide to fit through some doors and spaces and if deffo a no no if you have to take the bus at all.

Dont know what loola is like we looked at a few but liked quinny best, feel a bit suckered now so really think about your lifestyle and fit around that.

crosstownk

I got a Mclaren Techno a few years back and it's still going strong. The backrest folds down flat so it's perfect for a newborn and will do junior beyond the age of 3. It's easily foldable and can be taken onto a bus, train, etc and doesn't fill the boot when loaded into the car. IIRC, it cost around €200 almost 3 years ago. It's about to go around the block again as our newest arrival came last week!

Some more info here.

Zynks

We've had three buggies, and all have pros and cons:

• Mamas & Papas 3 in 1 (or something like that)
  - Pros:
  Good quality build, good car seat (from birth to +or- six months), looked good, cleans easy
  - Cons:
  Very large when folded (fixed axle front & rear), never used the cot because car seat was so good (clipped on and better to switch from car to buggy) , expensive
• Loola
  - Pros:
  Folds well, pretty solid, good protection from rain
  - Cons:
  HEAVY and climbing footpaths takes an extra effort because of design

McLaren (don't remember model, but top of the range)

- Pros:
Folds well, light,
- Cons:
not as solid as Loola, one of the aluminum bars snapped, didn't have a "built-in" rain cover

Important things to consider, as far as I remember:

• Do you need it to fold well because of car, home space or storage at a creche
• Are you likely to use it much in irregular ground (large wheels may be better for that)
• Do you need a clipon car seat (great if baby is sleeping when you want to move him/her)
• How long will you keep/use the buggy for (think of your comfort also when the child grows and becomes heavier)

Good luck!

chilledout

Thank you for your replies. After spending another day looking at travel systems we have moved away from the Loola. We're now considering the Neo Nato and the Bebecar Icon. No doubt by the time the baby arrives we'll be considering more! It's just such a hard decision. One is good for one reason and the other for another.

embee

I have two buggies - the Quinny Buzz and the Quinny Zapp.

The Buzz is the "travel system" type - it came with the Maxi Cosi group 0 carseat, the Dreami "pram" attachment, and the pushchair. We have gotten great use out of it - it is my everyday buggy. It unfolds with one touch, and folds up simply too. The basic frame of it means that you can attach the carseat to the frame, which is great when you just want to scoot around the shops quickly. Rhiannon is 11 months and I still use the carseat on the frame quite regularly. The pram part we used a lot too - when she was a newborn, she slept in that during the day, and as she was a February baby, it was nice to have her in a pram, so she was that little bit cosier than in her carseat. Now, the pushchair attachment is on the buggy most of the time - it can be faced forward or backward and reclines. Buggy came with Raincovers for both the pram part and the pushchair, and also mosquito nets. I chose this buggy as the handlebar height is great for someone tall like me (5 ft 11). I found I was stooping a little bit over some of the other buggies (particularly Graco). Also - the Buzz fits in the boot of my car no problems, and I only have an Opel Corsa.

The Quinny Zapp lives in my partners house - he lives down the country and it just saves on boot space (not having to bring the Buzz) when I'm going down to stay for a few days. It is suitable from birth onwards when used with the Maxi Cosi carseat (this carseat is great - it fits on all Quinny products, and I think on other makes too, ie Bugaboo). The Zapp is suitable from 6 months onwards as a pushchair. There is no recline position on it whatsoever, so baby should be a good "sitter" (ie not slouching to one side after a while of sitting) before he/she should be carried in the Zapp. The GREAT thing about the Zapp is that it folds up TINY - it fits in the passenger seat of the footwell in my car (and again, my car is by NO means big). It also has a travel bag, which was great for our holidays in France this year. It comes with raincover, mosquito net and carseat adaptor clips.


Quinny Buzz


Quinny Zapp.

They are stocked in Mothercare and Tony Kealys in Walkinstown (I'm sure there are other places too - we got ours in Mothercare).

chilledout

cheers for that embee, the buzz looks like it would make a good off road vehicle with those big wheels,handy for beach or park adventures, how do u find the 1 wheel at the front system? a few people have mentioned it can be awkward going up and down steps. a tendency to tip slightly? cheers :cool:

embee

chilledout wrote:

cheers for that embee, the buzz looks like it would make a good off road vehicle with those big wheels,handy for beach or park adventures, how do u find the 1 wheel at the front system? a few people have mentioned it can be awkward going up and down steps. a tendency to tip slightly? cheers :cool:

Hi chilledout,

The front wheel doesn't cause me any problems at all - if I am going up or down a few steps, I will just tip the buggy onto its back wheels - because they're big, air-filled wheels, you can go up and down steps on just these and its still easy to manouvre.

Oh, I meant to also say - that picture doesn't show it, but there is a triangular shaped shopping basket that goes underneath the Buzz available as well.

CJhaughey

We have had several, started with a Britax travel system which was handy as it allowed the babybucket to be removed from the car and clipped into the buggy, sounded great and we probably only used it like this a few times.
It was also heavy and didn't fold very small, the final straw was when the cable that operates the folding mechanism snapped and it couldn't be folded.
Next up was the Mclaren umbrella type stroller which folds small and is pretty handy our son was approaching 2 and we only needed this type of buggy.
Now with number 2 on the way we needed to get another type of buggy that would take 2 at the same time, after much searching and talking to other parents we decided that the phil and teds E3 would fit the bill, it is compact especially if you remove the wheels(easy to do) and has a brilliant second seat that can be setup to carry a baby and a toddler or two toddlers or a single toddler all on a fairly small 3 wheeler.
If we had known about these at the time we would have got one first off and saved the money we spent on the mclaren and the britax.
it would have done us right through to when they don't want to ride in a buggy anymore.

squire1

Agree with CJ, the Phil and Ted is an excellent buggy if you have or plan on having two kids within a couple of years.

It is an in-line twin rather than a side by side so it's just a easy to push around as a single buggy.

A bit expensive towards others but worth every penny. A lot of thought went into its design to make things easy for parents and comfortable for kids. It can be used for new-born (by buying the cocoon extra) and is suitable for up to four year olds.

dame

We got a Bebe Confort Everest three-wheeler buggy. It's a fantastic buggy - the front wheel is sprung and the tyres are pneumatic - great for cross-country walking/running. It's extremely strong and robust. Going up and down steps no problem, like someone else said just tip it back on back wheels which is what you have to do with a four-wheeler anyway.

It's also excellent as you can remove the buggy seat and use the car seat instead for small babies and face them towards yourself or frontways to see where they're going. In many travel systems (eg Graco) the carseat sits down on top of the entire buggy (seat and all) and the whole thing looks so big and cumbersome. The baby seat was one of the best going at the time as it is rear-facing and fitted a child up to 13kg weight. Rear-facing seats are BY FAR the safest for a child and the child should use them for as long as possible. They are so much safer that in Sweden children use rear-facing seats until the age of four.

The drawbacks were that the front wheel did not swivel but they have a newer version out now where it does swivel. It's also quite heavy. These drawbacks are not a problem for younger fitter parents but older parents or grandparents might not be able to manage it.

We got a small, light Graco buggy when she was a bit older (six months) for the Granny to use but it proved handier for me to use going shopping too. Big buggies and shops don't mix!

Buy a good baby-sling. Use this for going shopping or out in crowded places with a small baby. The hassle pushing any buggy around a shopping centre/supermarket just isn't worth it. Baby will be warm and cosy next to your chest and will be happier. When the child gets bigger you can get bigger bag-pack baby carrier things. We have one that can accommodate a child up to age four, she loves it! Again, probably not feasible for older or less fit people.

In summary, choose your buggy according to your lifestyle and how you expect to use it;
Outdoors, long walks or running = three-wheeler,
Indoors, traipsing around shops etc = smallest, lightest buggy possible.
Buy a baby-sling.
Invest in the safest carseat possible, rear-facing for as long as possible (until at least one year old), with a five-point safety harness, cannot stress how important a good carseat is. I'd worry more about choosing it than the buggy!

Zynks

On the three wheelers, although we never bought one, we were told to beware of two issues. One is to not go for a fixed front wheel, as already mentioned above. The other is to beware that if the breaks are on and the buggy is unattended, that the child could grab something and pull, causing the buggy to top on its side - we know two people who experienced that.

dame

Zynks wrote:

On the three wheelers, although we never bought one, we were told to beware of two issues. One is to not go for a fixed front wheel, as already mentioned above. The other is to beware that if the breaks are on and the buggy is unattended, that the child could grab something and pull, causing the buggy to top on its side - we know two people who experienced that.

The wider the wheel base the more stable it will be, ie more space between the two back wheels makes it more stable. Also lieing the toddler back means they can't reach out and grab so easily. It never happened with ours. It goes back to the lifestyle again, if you're around shops and leaving the little one beside racks of clothes they will try and pull on stuff, and because the buggy is that bit bigger and more awkward you're more likely to leave them in the one spot in the shop, giving them more opportunity to grab things. Buggies, especially big ones, are not suitable for shops. Get a small, handy one if you're going to be doing a lot of shopping.

BostonB

We got a Jané www.jane.es because it folded down really compact, and didn't take much space in the boot. it was was also a 3 in one, that you could use as a buggy, pram and carrytot. The Carrytot bit folded flat which was handy. We're still using it as buddy if we're going on a long walk, like for the whole day etc. now hes' 3. We have a lighter one aswell.

embee

Zynks wrote:

On the three wheelers, although we never bought one, we were told to beware of two issues. One is to not go for a fixed front wheel, as already mentioned above. The other is to beware that if the breaks are on and the buggy is unattended, that the child could grab something and pull, causing the buggy to top on its side - we know two people who experienced that.

That can't happen with my buggy tbh. My daughter does this a lot, but when you combine the factors of the width of the wheel base and the weight of the buggy with the child in it (not to mention her changing bag hanging on the buggy) its impossible for her to topple it.

Shelli

Has anyone used a Graco? I'm thinking of the Quattro Tour Deluxe travel system. This is the one here:

http://www.graco.co.uk/product/wheels/travelsystems/quattrodeluxetsb/

I like the earth mother colour scheme, not that it matters lol

Zynks

embee wrote:

That can't happen with my buggy tbh. My daughter does this a lot, but when you combine the factors of the width of the wheel base and the weight of the buggy with the child in it (not to mention her changing bag hanging on the buggy) its impossible for her to topple it.

Well, it's good to know this risk does not apply to all three-wheelers. TBH, I don't know what is the model(s) that presented the problem. Having said that, if your child is the cute one in your signature, she may be too young to have the strength required.

dame

Shelli wrote:

Has anyone used a Graco? I'm thinking of the Quattro Tour Deluxe travel system. This is the one here:

http://www.graco.co.uk/product/wheels/travelsystems/quattrodeluxetsb/

I like the earth mother colour scheme, not that it matters lol

I've used Graco. We got it as our second buggy, a Graco CitiSport or something like that it was called (not suitable for tiny baby). It's a good sturdy but light buggy, easily manoeuvreable. The wheels did wear out eventually though, after two years of not very heavy use (couple of hours once a week max) the wheels all but seized and there's a bearing or something gone in one of them, whereas the bigger more wakward 3-wheel beast is still going strong. At that stage the child can walk though. Overall I found it an excellent buggy but you can get lighter types if you want that or you can find ones that fold up much smaller.

To be honest if I was buying now I think I'd look seriously at that Quiny Zapp one that was posted by someone else above.

embee

Zynks wrote:

Well, it's good to know this risk does not apply to all three-wheelers. TBH, I don't know what is the model(s) that presented the problem. Having said that, if your child is the cute one in your signature, she may be too young to have the strength required.

Yeah, that wee one in the picture is my daughter, but its an old picture tbh. She is 1 in 2.5 weeks, and she weighs about 21-24lbs. She is well able to drag the chairs in our house around the place, but she deffo can't topple her buggy

PaulieC

I would absolutely recommend a Maclaren. As was said above, it folds back flat, so is suitable for a newborn to lie down. They also come with foot muffs and rain covers included in the price (probably less than EUR200)- try getting that with any of the 'trendy' makes.
I have 15 month old twins and have the maclaren twin buggy. It's as solid as a rock, yet is still light enough and folds down small enough to fit lengthways into the car boot (Passat). We've had that since they were born, but last summer bought a Mamas & Papas twin buggy to try it out - it wasn't half as solid feeling and was quite big when folded down.
Another thing I'd avoid is a travel 'system'. In my opinion, they are way too expensive and usually means that the baby has to lie in a car seat for most of the time, which is not too comfortable - they should be lying flat as much as possible.

Anyway, each to their own...

duploelabs

Anyone have any opinions on the Bugaboo Chameleon system?

Peared

Thinking about buying a bugaboo for my sister. Apart from the pram bit, what are the main differences between the Bee and the Chameleon?

duploelabs

Peared wrote: »

Thinking about buying a bugaboo for my sister. Apart from the pram bit, what are the main differences between the Bee and the Chameleon?

I've just had a go at the chameleon system and it seems a great allrounder, the bee seems a bit lightweight and, to quote the shop keeper, 'only good if you're popping into dundrum shopping centre and that's all'

metrovelvet

squire1 wrote: »

Agree with CJ, the Phil and Ted is an excellent buggy if you have or plan on having two kids within a couple of years.

It is an in-line twin rather than a side by side so it's just a easy to push around as a single buggy.

A bit expensive towards others but worth every penny. A lot of thought went into its design to make things easy for parents and comfortable for kids. It can be used for new-born (by buying the cocoon extra) and is suitable for up to four year olds.

The phil and teds looks like one of the kids gets stuck in the luggage compartment.:(

The right buggy really depends on your lifestyle. Are you urban? rural?

And btw lying in the carseat is not recommended for more than 40 minutes for a newborn. They need to lie flat for the right spine development.

January

chilledout wrote: »

Thank you for your replies. After spending another day looking at travel systems we have moved away from the Loola. We're now considering the Neo Nato and the Bebecar Icon. No doubt by the time the baby arrives we'll be considering more! It's just such a hard decision. One is good for one reason and the other for another.

I have nothing but good things to say about the Neonato. I bought it from EurocyclesEurobaby and it is brilliant!!

The car seat is group 0 and baby fits in perfectly, the only con about it is the shade that goes over the car seat, it is removable but if you have it on it's kinda awkward getting babs in and out of it!! It clips onto the chassis of the buggy also.

The carrycot is flippin excellent, I use it all the time, baby sleeps in it during the day and loves being in it when I go shopping too!!

I haven't gotten a chance to use the buggy part yet as baby is too small but it apparently does them for a good while and it looked brilliant in the shop.

I know this is a sad part but I loved the fact that it comes in loads of different colours! I got mine in yellow .

Nea

We purchased the Hauck Infinity from Kiddicare, We got a great deal which included a carrycot and car seat. The carrycot was great up to six months as baba wanted to see out and was trying to pull himself up. We have just taken him out of the car seat at 10 months. The buggy itself is great as it reclines back fully and is also forward/rear facing. It is sturdy and we have had no problem with the wheels.

The buggy will fit into the boot of my Clio with the parcel shelf removed; you can easily remove the inflatable wheels from the buggy also. It is similar looking to the bugaboo but at a fraction of the price. Eurobaby had them in Newbridge recently but it was cheaper from Kiddicare.

Stufinnegan

duploelabs wrote: »

Anyone have any opinions on the Bugaboo Chameleon system?

We have had one for nine months now. The Bugaboo is great over rough ground. It also takes the Maxi Cosi car seat, but you have to purchase mounting clips. The downside to the bugaboo is it folds in two pieces. So if you want to take a bus into town, folding is not an option. The extras are also really expensive. ours is still like new after nine months and it has had a walk in the Phoenix Park every day so far.

Dades

duploelabs wrote: »

Anyone have any opinions on the Bugaboo Chameleon system?

We have one and think it's great.

Also, consider a trip up north for all your baby stuff in one go. Like weddings, when it comes to baby gear, shops like to think they can charge you anything, so I'd have no qualms about taking business elsewhere.

Patricia1

We also have a Bugaboo Cameleon and are really pleased with it. It is very easy to manoevre - turns on a saucer. Also works well with the Maxi Cosi car seat. Also we got great use out of the Pram section when baby was small and we wanted to keep her lying flat. I have heard that the pram section on some other makes can be a bit small. Only downside is that it comes apart in two pieces so can be a bit difficult to transport (not for public transport).