Older Bugaboo Cameleon

[WeePoppy]

A colleague of DH's has just offered to give us her 8 year-old Bugaboo Cameleon with all the accessories + car seat. I am 20 weeks pregnant with my first child so don't know much about prams or car seats yet (but I'm reading up!).

I just have a few questions and I was wondering whether you could help me out?
1/ Would an 8 year-old car seat still meet British Standards?
2/ If not: I also have an offer of a 2 year-old Maxi Cosi car seat (someone else's hand-me-down) - I read that these fit on Bugaboo chassis but would an 2 year-old car seat fit on an 8 year-old chassis?
3/ Finally - would new Cameleon parts fit an older model in case it needs freshened up?

Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks!

I wouldn't use an 8 year old car seat, no. Plastic deteriorates and you also have no real way of knowing If it's previously been damaged.

Re the Bugaboo, I have a Cameleon 2 (so the one before the current model). You can buy parts etc for older models on the Bugaboo website but it could get expensive - is there anything wrong with it?

We have 2 Cameleons, both were hand me downs, I think one is 1st generation and the other is 2nd.

Maxi-cosi car sets definitely fit fine on both, you need the adaptors but the same ones fit both.

I got a new mattress recently for the bassinet, it fits fine, and actually I took bits off one of the chassis and put them on the other, depending on wear.

So the buggy we actually use is a hybrid of the 2 original buggies. So swapping parts hasn't been an issue.

Thanks Lucidlady - As far as I am aware, there is nothing wrong with the Bugaboo (it was still in use fairly recently) but I'll go and have a look at it later in the week. I would like to buy a new mattress but other than that I was just wondering whether it was easy to get parts should I need them.

Thanks a lot NoMontagues. I'll probably go for the newer car seat then and get the adapters. I know the history of the newer car seat anyway so I know it's not damaged in any way and has been well looked after.

I would definitely take the Bugaboo - I am using an 8 year old Frog and it is just brilliant. However you should definitely have a new car seat, I wouldn't consider one more than a year or two old (for the reasons given above) and car seat and mattress (including cot mattress) are really the only two things you need new. You don't really need a car seat to fit the buggy you can just use the bassinet and then the seat and in fact it is much better for babies to lie flat rather than sit in in car seat.

Thanks WLondonMum - I read quite a few reviews and it looks like the Bugaboo is a very good pram so I will take it unless there is something fundamentally wrong with it (I doubt it as it was still in use fairly recently).

I bought a new bugaboo mattress for DC2 - was quite easy to find one using Google - just make sure it's not a mattress for the Cam 3 as that definitely won't fit properly!

Thanks Lucidlady, I'll keep that in mind.
I'll go and see it (and get a tutorial on it!) on Thursday night.

Wee update: We went to pick up the pram last night and it's in beautiful condition! It looks like new, has all the extras like foot muff, umbrella and rain cover and it definitely doesn't need any new bits. Now I need to learn how to use it...

I have a hand me down frog that's about 8/9 years old. I bought a new mattress from baby mattresses online and they had option for various pram sized mattresses.
They're solid built prams and will last forever it seems. :)

That's a generous gift from the colleague. She could have sold it. They hold some value.