How much did you pay for your whole travel system ?

[CandyPop]

I love the iCandy strawberry at the moment but got a quote back from John Lewis that nearly gave me a heart attack! So the quote includes ;

Stroller and seat
Carrycot
Two flavour packs to go with above
Maxi cosi pebble
Stage 2 isofix base

All costing just over £1k

Is that reasonable ?! Anyone manage to get above for iCandy strawberry cheaper ? I can try get JL to price match ......

Good grief. I had a silver cross linear freeway with car seat and it was £300 brand new in 2010. I couldn't justify a thousand pounds for a pram.

I paid £120 for my brand new travel system from Boots.
I knew that after a few months i would be buying a nice folding mclaren buggy instead which is easier.

IMHO spending 1k on a travel system is ridiculous, but if you have the money and like it then why not?

ICandy pb2 includes:
Chassis
2x seats
Lower carrycot
Main carrycot for when ds2 is out on their own (ds at nursery etc)

Coming in at £1100 ish

Justifying cost by thinking:

-We have everything from ds so hardly anything else to buy
-Wasn't in a position to buy nice pram for ds (cost less than £100 and I HATED it!)

• trying to convince DP that we should go for dc3 with another small age gap
• selling a kidney

I think it's a lot-I know it's a lot!! And it feels very materialistic but for something that would suit our needs, we weren't talking small amounts anyway so we went all out!!

And in answer to your question, have you tried an independent stockist? I'm
Not sure about the different prices but maybe you could get something thrown in for free?!

We got a mother care My4 and a basic mothercare carseat (so complete travel system) for about £370 new. Wouldn't have paid any more.

John Lewis have their own brand travel system on sale ATM for about £200 I think. Or what about ebay? Lots of nearly new buggies on there. Think of what you could spend the money you save on!

Here's the JL one. Half price! Can be parent facing, includes car seat, not bad looking...

Disclaimer: I do not work for John Lewis!

we paid £500 for a britax travel system when we had ds1 and then when we had ds3 we paid the same for a bugaboo frog and i am still using it now with baby no5 so it was well worth the money, no way would i pay a grand for a pushchair!

I got my Strawberry last week.

The only think on your list I didn't get was the Isofix base (as our car doesn't have Isofix points) and we got the Maxi Cosi Cabriofix instead of the Pebble. Total price £749.

I got it from an independent retailer. There are no JL stores where I live.

^thing, not think!

To spend £1000 for a pram/travel system is just sooo much money, and think how upset you would be if after all that expense it developed a fault! Think of the trouble of taking it back to where you bought it from and getting it repaired under guarantee, and remember its still at the companies discretion to repair it. My travel system was £240 and yes it did go wrong twice but luckily it was fixed, and if it gets the odd scratch here and there its not the end of the world becos it didn't cost too much. I do try to keep it in good condition but sometimes when folding it to put away or put in the boot of the car you can catch it and mark it. These travel systems are not light they can be quite heavy to handle especially when lifting them into the car on your own!

I had various reasons for choosing the system I did, none of which I feel the need to justify to anyone. It's a bit like cars...some people feel like a BMW suits them best when a Ford Fiesta would serve their purpose just as well.

However, I also considered resale value...iCandy, Bugaboo etc all hold their value really well and can easily recoup 50% plus of their price on the second hand market.

I spent 300£ on a travel system from mother care and i thought that was a lot of money. Turned out a waste of money as well ds was prem then sicj then walking everywhere at a year- he hated the pushchair. Would never buy one again. But if u have the money and you want it I see no reason why not-just find generally these things have limited use.

I bought a Jane 3 piece travel system for DS 4 years ago. It had the pram bit they lie in, the pushchair and a group 0 car seat and a change bag. Cost 265?. Can't imagine spending a grand on a travel system!

WTF is a 'flavour pack' and why do you need two of them??

Anyway. To answer the question I've never had a travel system but my pushchair/carrycot thing was £70 off Ebay.

Flavour pack is the coloured accessory pack. You need 2 because one is the hood & apron for the carrycot. The other is the good and seat liner for the pushchair.

^hood stupid fat fingers

so you are paying extra for the hood and seat liner etc, ffs that should come as standard, it did with my bugaboo and the same hood fits for the carrycot and pushchair, ditto the apron bit etc.

What the actual fuck is an iCandy? I've had cars that cost less than that. Have you done an online comparison? We got our silver cross pram for less than 400 it would have been 800 from John Lewis.

iCandy don't sell online and don't permit their authorised retailers to sell online. There is an itemised price list on their website.

I've just googled. It looks a lot like a Jane, which is much cheaper.

I would never go to an independent stockist. I got my DD's pram from one 5 months ago as its a family tradition to go to this shop. Original price was £350 including everything you need for pram and for the car. Went back there to pick it up, had to pay £450 and complained but just got told 'tough' but it or lose your £100 deposit. And it was missing 2 vital parts we had to buy separately for £100 extra. Buy from JL next time, it's a shame one shop has destroyed our lack of faith.

Btw, spend on a pram what you like if you can afford it. I don't like the expensive ones as I thought they looked too 'tough' ifswim, but each to their own!

Buy it that should be

£120 brand new, only ever used the car seat. Sold it weeks later for £100 and didn't buy another.

Maclaren techno xlr £220
Maclaren recaro car seat £99
Maclaren carrycot to fit into stroller £35 reduced from tesco.com

Total inc raincovers, adaptors, cosytoes
=£354.00

Have you looked the oyster? I had my heart set on an iCandy (peach) and nearly bought it but had a look at the babystyle oyster at the babyshow... It's not quite as stylish but has similarities, you can personalise the colours, it's just as small to fit in the boot, feels pretty sturdy and easy to push around. I managed to pick up a nearly new one (owned by gp's for visits) with everything carrier, stroller etc, etc for £200. In the end, I just couldn't justify spending that amount on just one item when the money could go towards an extra month on maternity leave or the like. But.... If you can afford it... Go for it! they are gorgeous