what pram to buy?

[mumtobe77]

Hi I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my 1st child. I have heard from friends the bugaboo chameleon is a good pram, but to be honest I found it all a bit awkward to master in the shops! Should I persevere and go for this one?! I have also looked at the britax smart 3/4 and found this a lot easier to collapse etc.... I'm wondering if ayone has any reviews they could share. Has anyone used the britax smart travel system-did you like it? Any negatives? What about the britax babysafe car seat? Any other travel system suggestions/tips?
Thanks , Anna

bugaboo is a very good pram, if you just want one pram that will take them all the way up to 3 - 4 years old.

What's important to you.. do you have limited space in house to store pram? how big is your car boot? Do you use public transport a lot? Do you live in city or country? Is parent facing important to you?

Travel systems are ok but cumbersome for car boots and public transport and often can't do parent facing. Also lots of people don't like them as you often can't lay the baby completely flat and they are concerned that it's not great for the spine etc.

Hi, I live in the city but want to beable to go for country walks too. I drive a clio so boot size is ok for a small car but it's definitely not huge!
Won't really be using public transport much...maybe the odd bus here and there.
Yes I want baby to beable to face me and also face forward as it gets older.
Both the bugaboo and the britax models I looked at would have carry cot for 1st 6 months then onto forward or rear facing seat. Both also have a car seat which uses isofix base and clicks onto pram chassis. The bugaboo uses the maxicosi and the britax uses the babysafe plus.
The britax system all in is a couple hundred pounds cheaper and I initially found the collapsing mechanism easier with this model....but I have heard a lot of good reports about the bugaboo. So I am hoping someone who has used the bugaboo or the britax smart 4 ( prev known as vigour 4) may be able to let me know what the pros and cons are of both models. Cheers, Anna

I had exactly the same issue, and we have ended up going for the B Smart. Still waiting for LO to arrive so we can test it in the real world, but so far it is so much better for us than the Cam would have been - it's easier for me to put up and down and lift into the boot (quicker too, vital for rainy days!) And I love that the baby will be able to face me for as long as I want.

We've opted for the Babysafe Sleeper for the first few months as we'll be doing a lot of driving to visit family etc. Sorry I can't advise on car seats. I haven't looked into them yet.

AnyFule makes some great points. I'll also add that I also heard that lying flat is important for their breathing too - babies use their stomachs more to breathe, so they can't get as good lungfuls when they're cradled in a car seat for long periods of time.

Have fun making your choice. I loved picking our pram, and I absolutely can't wait to start using it!

xpost!

Will also add, the only thing I think I will miss on the Britax is the handle brake for when you're walking downhill. I live in a hilly town, so that feature on the bugaboo would have been great. But for us, the Britax won hands down for being lighter and easier.

Also, I have a Punto, and while the chassis fits in the boot, I do have to take the wheels off to get it in. But even that feature was easier on the Britax than the Bugaboo.

We borrowed a friend's cameleon to test it on the car, before we tried the Britax out, so we kind of had an idea of how they would stack up against each other.

Sorry. Two long posts

have you tried out the shopping basket on the britax? remember that little niggly problems can become a huge pain when you're using a pram every day so make sure your shopping basket is big enough and that you have somewhere to hang your nappy bag.

The shopping basket on the britax is shallower and smaller than the bugaboo-anyone had any issues with the basket in either model?