help, first pushchair, the choice is doing my head in!

[camflower]

hello everyone, pls excuse me if you think this subject has been done to death but i'm going in round in circles and need some more expert advice!

my first baby is due in august. i live in london, drive and use public transport and i like to get out and about so i want something reasonably sturdy and comfy for the baby.

bugaboo bee: love the look of the bee but it seems really tiny and a lot of money for something that looks like it'll last a year

cameleon ; again, v expensive and i worry that it's style over substance. trouble is you read stacks of reviews and everyone either seems to love it or hate it!! and here in stoke newington/islington EVERYBODY in the whole world seems to have one. i have friends with slightly older children who say i should just get one, and they wished they'd been around when they had theirs. ...

mountain buggy: have read great things about the urban, although it is supposed to be a bit of a beast to take on public transport and it does have a carrycot and can take a car seat. think they have just been taken over by phil and ted's so there is a big supply problem at the moment, and i can't get to see one in the flesh, so to speak . the new light one, the mb swift was a which best but, but you can't get a carrycot for it and the seat doesn't reverse ...

micralite toro newborn: a friend swears by the old fastfold one, although they are quite flimsy cos they are light.
the toro has a carrycot, is easy to fold and you can buy big front wheels to turn it into an offroader. seat won't face you but not sure how much that matters after the carrycot stage??

then of course my parents go into a pram shop which sells emmaljunga and the woman in the shop says she's been selling them for 15 years and they are the best prams ever la la la .... if that's so, why do they hardly ever get mentioned??

think i had better stop here cos this is too long already but any thoughts would be great. i've gone in a few short months from not knowing the first thing about prams/buggies/pushchairs to being totally obsessed - maybe i should get out more!

thanks in advance

I would give this shop a ring. Thye do very good prices and excellent customer service.

You ladies need to call into the pushchair shed - we love our buggies and can tell you all about them!!

MB everyone raves about them, brill comfy ride but big for on a bus and heavy to lift in and out of a car.

M and P pliko - great as a prammette, rubbish as a buggy, I sold mine as soon as dd was 6 months. Silver cross 3d much better quality but sooooooooo heavy, I really struggled with shopping basket full and dd at the time was about 18 months to push with two hands!!

Bug cam fantastic, love love love it, I would not take it on a bus (big and have to take apart to store, can't fold with seat on)
I walked miles and miles with mine, rarely took it in the car a such a pain to fold (though on occassion I left it in the car upright as I have a big car!

I hated my bee, flimsy, rattly though on paper does everything, streety is very similar but heck of a lot cheaper.

Maclaren XT fab, I still have as my main buggy the new black one, dd is 2.4 and so easy to push one handed but I would not want a forward facing buggy for newborn.

So many other buggies...

If anyone wants a good laugh then go to the Bugaboo website and download the video for the Bee - the top one out of the two videos on the right hand side of the screen. It's very..............ummmm............different?

Can't believe they've gone to that much trouble/thought/imagination for a pushchair :-)

cor, thanks everyone, i had pretty much convinced myself that the bee was too small but now i'm wavering again ...

I am also due in August and have bought the Bee, but if I hadn't been bothered about rear facing I would have just got a Maclaren.

I wanted something light that folded up small and decided that the Bee was the best rear-facing option and a Maclaren or other umbrella-style was the best choice otherwise.

I'm a fan of the Jane Slalom pro too - it's fab! So light to push in town or country (much easier than the Silver Cross Pop we bought for going on holiday and have hardly used since). Really comfortable for my DS as the seat is roomy, and seems nicer to sleep in than the buggy too IMHO. No-one I know who has a Jane or a Bugaboo has swapped to a buggy but most with pramettes or Graco type travel systems have.
Don't know much about the Bugaboo or Mountain buggy but other people I know seem to like them.
The Jane and the Mountain buggy might be a bit more of a pain if there's not much room on a bus, compared to a smaller buggy though. I agree with you that's there's a ridiculous amount of choice, and different ones suit different people so it's really hard to know until you try it out.