Pram do'a and don't's

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Looking for recommendations for prams. Prams you've bought and loved and prams you've regretted

Obviously everyone's needs are different but just to give me options to look at

Thanks.

Uppababy vista is excellent. Great stability. A breeze to push. V well made and sturdy. Large carry cot and toddler seat so good for big babies and 4 yo would be comfy. Great when you've got two kids as converts to double with adapters. Huge basket that my 3yo now likes to sit in when tired. Mine has lasted so well.

Cons - expensive and all the extras are crazy too (£120 for buggy board). Although there is a good second hand market. Quite heavy. Quite bulky.

I bought a 4 in 1 where the carry cot could be attached in the car using the rear seat belts. Fortunately, I had to work in London for 2 weeks at 32 weeks and, horrified by the price of new prams nipped across the Channel. It was nearer than driving home to Cheshire. Bought at Carrefour in Cité Europe for 160€ when the latest was £600. Got a good cheap travel cot, too.
When converted to a pushchair it could be either front or rear facing. Sadly as it wasn't a trendy colour, just navy/white stripes inside I couldn't sell it, and gave it away.

Nothing wrong with buying second hand, make sure it fits in the car and if you or your partner are tall make sure you can extend the handle. I see so many people hunched over whilst pushing a push chair

I don't think anyone said there is anything wrong with buying second hand ?

Omg what a saving!

Id have thought navy was a good colour!

Compile your wish list, for me it was -

• adjustable bars or comfy for very tall DH and short me
• folding was easy-ish
• good for going round shops but could also cope off road
• was reversible eg baby could face me (so that put the out n about out unfortunately)
• had a carry cot attachment (altho in hindsight only used it for 4 months I did like it and did use it for sleeping inside/downstairs too)
• could attach a baby car seat so if it was short shopping trips or pickups didn’t have to disturb the baby
• had some longevity so would last them (eg the candy’s to me look very short)
• decent basket/storage
• having said that of course we also then got a umbrella folding Maclaren when they were a bit older
• bonus if it had good resale value

it was years ago now but we went for a bugaboo and it served us v well, with DC3 got an mosey easywalker which I really liked but don’t think they took off really and I struggled with resale value.

Oh and fitting in the car might be on that list for you too! We had a big boot at the time so wasn’t too worried about that

Great advice thank you.

Partner is 6'2" and I'm 5'4" so a good point on the height aspect

Uppababy Vista without a doubt, the best!

The only thing I would say about buying secondhand is to be mindful of the changes they make between models. You can pick up my pram (which I will be reusing this time around), a first gen Bugaboo Fox, secondhand very reasonably. However the latest model now has a carrycot which is safe for overnight sleep, a better folding mechanism and a larger basket. Same with my sister’s Phil & Ted, six months after she bought it they brought out a new version which ironed out a lot of the issues that pissed her off about it! You have to weigh up whether the upgrades, plus warranty, etc are worth the £££ over buying secondhand.

I have the Fox and a Bugaboo Bee, both of which I love for different ”jobs”. Because they’re the same manufacturer you can swap a lot of accessories between them (eg. the buggy board I’ve just ordered) and they really are workhorses. We also have a cheapy first gen Cybex Eezy S+ which is our holiday/travel pram but also lives at my mum and dad’s as it folds so compactly. I got that off a discount website for about £130 and it’s been so handy to have.

I live in Germany on the French border, sadly prams are nowhere near that cheap in France now. That must be quite out of date.

Prams have really gone insane in cost terms over the last few years. When I had DS1 in 2008, I paid £200 for an ex-display model and I thought that was a lot, the top end prams at that time (Bugaboo etc) were about £400. By the time I had DS2 in 2018, you couldn't get anything for £200 except for some Argos own brand type deal. The "cheap" models were about £400 and the high end ones £800+. Now you can easily find prams over a thousand pounds. It's ridiculous. As one of my friends commented "Does it come with an employee to push it for me as well??"

It all depends where you live and what you like doing. I have the mountain buggy terrain but my daughter is now 3 and I walk 3 miles or so a day for the nursery run and hate tiny wheels, so it's massive and pretty heavy. I started with the mountain buggy swift and out and about nipper sports for longer walks. The out and about nipper 360 might be a good around option.
If I didn't walk for the nursery run my pram choice may have been different.

The uppababy vista looks a great one as well.

The best car seat on the market is the Avionaut Pixel Pro and that will use the maxi cosi adaptors but don't replace the carrycot with a car seat as it's not the best place for baby to be.

My top tip is try it out at a shop first.
I got a Noordi Sole Go that I bought new online. It ticked all the boxes but DD is 6 months old now and I don't really like it anymore.
The car seat is great.
The carry cot is great.
The changing bag is great.

We're now moving out of the carry cot onto the seat attachment and I hate it. The seat apron is weird.
The seat is too big for DD.
The whole pram base doesn't fit in the car properly.
Removing the car seat from the pram base is difficult.

If we'd have tried it out in a shop first then we would have seen these issues and picked something else.

I just bought a joie nitro for when we go abroad in 2 months and I suspect that the Noordi will be permanantly ditched for the nitro when we get back.

Get something that fits well in your car and is light enough to lift 🤦🏻‍♀️ We did not do this. I blame the pandemic as we could only try two prams between lockdowns.

Joie I level car seat reclines almost flat on the pram chassis so you can get baby in and out of car asleep and stretch it out so they aren't crunched up. Far cheaper than cybex cloud z but I don't think it's totally flat so isn't marketed like that. Was great for us. Joie 360 from 6 months was ideal.

Eldest turns 5 tomorrow and our uppababy vista has been in constant use for all that time across two children. Also have a double and a cheapy lightweight that we used to leave at nursery, but the vista is our default buggy. About to pack it up to bring to a forest for youngest.

I'm 5'2" access DH is 6'2" and we both find it comfortable to push. Definitely our best baby buy.

@JenniferBarkley That's the one we have and hate 😂

😂 in fairness, we don't use the car that often, if we're using a buggy we're usually walking from the house. I don't mind putting it in and out of the boot the odd time but not every time!

@TheBirdintheCave @JenniferBarkley we also have the uppababy vista and it is a total pain in the arse to get in and out of the r car, the mechanism seems to be designed to trap your fingers

a brilliant pram otherwise, ours has lasted years in configurations for multiple children. Very sturdy but easy to push

@McOrange My husband has trapped his fingers in it many times 🤦🏻‍♀️😂