Which Maclaren...

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Forgive me if this has been discussed before.

Currently using a bugaboo bee for our DD(14 months) has been brilliant so far but DD has been reluctant to be in it for any length of time recently.

I put this down to her age however we have just come back from a weeks holiday in a friends villa where they keep a maclaren XT to use when visiting with their own DC. As we drove we decided to leave our trusty bee at home and have a little more bootspace and borrow said maclaren.

Anyway DD seemed so much happier in the maclaren, she had a better 'view' due to the different sun hood and seemed much more upright. (never noticed how 'laid back' the bee was before now)

So I have now been trawling ebay for maclarens. was originally looking at the XT model but have found the quest to be cheaper.

Can anyway tell me the difference (apart from the wheel size?!) between the two? Im willing to put up with the bulkier one if the ease of pushing is better. TBH we rarely fold our bee and just leave it fully erected in the porch as I do not drive.

TIA

Hi,

I've had both the XT and the Quest and the XT is much better. The bigger wheels make a big difference to ease of pushing, plus the seat fully reclines, handles are adjustable and it has the extended zipped hood with built in sun visor. Size wise the XT is a bit longer folded, but if you fold the two side by side there isn't that much of a difference.

I sold the XT when lo was 15 months as my lo was squashed in the narrow seat. I found the Quest very hard to push with a heavy toddler and narrow seat again and so got rid of it after a few months. I've used a Baby Jogger City Mini for 18 months, and it is so much easier to push than the Maclarens. It has a much wider and taller seat and after using this I can't go back to Maclaren.

Completely agree with Bunnynose! I had a quest as my car pushchair initially and it was awful - would not go in a straight line for love nor money and was generally bloody hard work to push. The hood also wasn't long enough to go over the back of the seat when reclined so flapped around my son's ears which was really annoying.

So I swapped it for an XT which is much better and is a very good pushchair but it's a long way from perfect. I ended up using this as the main pushchair when my first son got bigger and found it had too many niggles... the recline is very fiddly, it's nigh on impossible to push one-handed, especially with a bigger child in it and the basket is very small and difficult to get anything meaningful in it. Having said that it is incredibly sturdy and has stood up to whatever we've thrown at it.

My XT is now awaiting a wash and brush up in preparation for sale though. I have just bought a baby jogger city mini 4-wheel and it really does beat it hands down. Like Bunnynose said, I don't think I could go back to a maclaren again either. It's easier to push and recline and has more room in the seat, the basket is bigger and easier to get things in and the hood is amazing, protects baby brilliantly in this warmer weather.

Thanks very much for these responses. I have had a look online and my local toys r us apparently stock the baby jogger so I'm going to drag dh in there over the weekend for a play before I make a decision!

The only thing worrying me about the baby jogger from the pictures I have seen is that it seems a lot wider than my current bee that I'm used to nipping round narrow shop aisles with! We found the mclaren wasn't much wider. How would you compare your baby joggers to your maclarens in terms of negotiating tight shops (h&m springs to mind!)

There's no doubting it is wider but its not horrendously so and certainly no worse than the bugaboo cameleon I had to start off with. It is however, incredibly easy to manoeuvre and you can literally swing it round on a sixpence using just one hand. To be honest I have caught the back wheels a couple of times but its been mostly while I wasn't fully concentrating and it's such a perfect pushchair in every other way that it doesn't worry me.

Yes it is wider, but I've never had a problem getting around shops. It turns so easily one handed and is so easy to manouvre. It's much more stable than the Maclarens as well, you can hang a lot of shopping on it before it will start to tip, whereas my Maclaren would tip with just the changing bag on the back. The wider back also means my DH doesn't kick the back wheels when he's pushing the buggy, which he was always doing with the Maclaren.