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Maclaren XLR - Please help!

11 replies

ItchyTits · 25/03/2010 20:06

Dear mumnetters

Trying to negotiate the minefield of prams/car-seats and travel systems, but feeling pressure to buy EVERYTHING and would have to greatly compromise my limited space if I got a huge pram.

One alternative seems to be to buy a Maclaren XLR to use from birth - with car-seat, reclining buggy, and possibly a cot too.

Is there any reason why not?

I'm feeling like a bad mother already (and haven't given birth yet) because can't quite see the need for the tank-like Bugaboos/ Quinnys etc.

I do like walking and don't want a 'boneshaker', but surely Maclaren wouldn't be able to sell the XLR as 'from birth' if it wasn't safe.

Trouble is, I'm having the baby on Tuesday and need to choose the car seat now. Maclaren has its own system - a different Isofix etc

Please help!!

OP posts:
nicolamumof3 · 25/03/2010 21:37

ok well theres a huge gap between 'safe' & comfortable! you need comfort for you to use and for baby. When they are newborn they need to be flat...not in a carseat on travel system. The xlr is flat enought and you can get carrycot. Personally i'd want something more 'pram like' something that can rear face for longer.

ItchyTits · 25/03/2010 23:00

Thanks Nicola.

I'm sure I heard/ read somewhere that a newborn needed to be at least 150 degrees flat, so the slight curve of the Maclaren seems ok.

I do understand and agree about rear facing for longer

OP posts:
tutu100 · 25/03/2010 23:19

You can buy a carrycot to go on the XLR so that would be abit more comfortable and cosy for baby and allow them to lie flat but so you can see them.

With ds1 I had him in a forwards facing stroller from birth as I lived in a 4th floor flat with no lift and no room to store a pram. He seemed comfortable enough and fell asleep within minutes of being in the pushchair. Although I think I am trying to make up for the lack of pram I had with him with ds2!

ItchyTits · 26/03/2010 07:20

I think my forgetting about the rear facing issue reminds me how much the hassle of choosing a buggy is getting to me - there's just too much choice!

tutu what are you going for this time around?

OP posts:
nicolamumof3 · 26/03/2010 07:25

it very much depends on your lifestyle how you will be using pram/buggy etc? would you drive or walk most places? use public transport? do you walk off road i.e woods, beaches etc? You need something that will suit your lifestyle as well as being comfy for baby.

MillyMollyMoo · 26/03/2010 19:39

I would get the Mama's and Papa's switch or pramette if you want something compact and buggy like as both would last longer in the lie flat/rear facing position.
The carrycot with the XLR doesn't look very big in real life, I would guess 3 months use v's 6 months with the pramette and a lot longer with the switch.

susiey · 26/03/2010 20:13

I would love a maclaren xlr I had a techno classic with my daughter and living in london on and off public transport it is great and we made it cosier with a buggy snuggle.
The idea of the carrycot also appeals to me and the carseat adaptors
alas it is still going strong ready for number 3 so no new buggy for me!

tutu100 · 27/03/2010 18:34

I bought a pushchair that had a carrycot you could clip on to use for the first few months, but ds2 was in and out of hospital so it didn't really get used, then when we came out I needed to be able to use a buggyboard for ds1 so got the stroller I had for ds1 out and lined it with a sheepskin liner and ds2 seemed perfectly happy and comfortable. Since then I have bought a couple of cheap 2nd hand rearfacer's because I want to see ds2 and talk to him, but he has hated them and screams until he is facing forwards. He's 15 months old now though, but even at 9 months he would do that.

I would reccomend if you wuold like a pram for the first couple of months buy a 2nd hand one, you can get really nice ones pretty cheaply, and then when you are happy to, get a stroller.

mummc2 · 27/03/2010 18:51

I bought a big bulky thing first time round and only used it for 6 months was such a waste of money (£400 with car seat).

Second time i bought a second hand M&P pliko which is a pramette rear facing and then a normal pushchair with car seat for £120 off ebay in like new condition and then when DD was 9 mths sold it on got £80 back and then bought a smaller umbrella fold buggy.

mummc2 · 27/03/2010 19:03

or something like THIS and then something like a maclaren quest when they are bigger

philbee · 28/03/2010 21:47

I've got a Maclaren XLR and have used it from when DD was born - she's now 19 months. I really like it, and didn't feel it was too bone-shakey - there's suspension in the wheels and the padding it comes with is comfy. There wasn't a carrycot when we got ours, but that sounds like a good addition. I used it with the carseat until she was about four months, but didn't realise you can adjust the carseat, so it probably could have been longer, except she was never that keen on being in it. At the beginning it did feel like she was a bit vulnerable lying flat with nothing on the front of the pushchair, but I got a cheapo cosytoes from TKMaxx and that made me feel happier with it. This winter she's used the big footmuff it comes with.

I don't drive and live in London, and I would say the XLR's done at least a mile of walking every day for the last 18 months. I went on the tube, trains and buses with it from when DD was about two weeks old and never had any insurmountable problems. I've had the brake discs replaced, which cost £15, and DD's been fighting the hood so the plastic's torn now. But it's been great, all in all, pretty light, very manoeverable around shops, and on buses (split handles very useful on buses, incidentally, so that you can get them either side of a pole and put the pushchair into a smaller space). All the bits are easily removed and machine-washable. I still put it flat when DD falls asleep, although she can sleep less reclined.

Only downsides are that it's only rear-facing with the carseat, and I think I would have liked to see her more when she was little, although she didn't seem bothered. And that when the seat's flat it's tricky getting into the basket, but I think that must be a problem with all the pushchairs of that design.

as nicolamumof3 says, depends what you want it for really. Despite all that, I've recently bought a cheap Tesco stroller to pop to the park or playgroup in, and we use the XLR when we're out for longer, or I'll have more to schlep home. Chances are that even if you get it you'll want something smaller when your baby's a toddler anyway but, as I say, we've been really happy with the XLR and it definitely let me get about more easily than friends who had really massive heavy travel systems.

Other one you could look at is a Bugaboo Bee - I know a couple of people who have been really happy with theirs and you can flip it round to be front or rear facing. More money though. And when we were looking I thought it would be too small fairly quickly, whereas the XLR still has lots of room for our enormous offspring - but perhaps you are more reasonably sized than we are!

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