How is the Metrolite all around?

[Splash]

I have a friend who is expecting a baby in late July. She and I are going to BRU tomorrow so she can try out some seats and strollers IRL. She's dreading it, the only pg woman I've ever met that dreads baby shopping.

She's been asking me for months about the right seat. For a long time she wanted a convertible from birth, now she decided she wants a travel system. Fine. I have a snap n go that I will give her if she wants it, but she may just pick a regular TS.

I was thinking a SS1/ML combination. SS1 because it is such a fab and easy to use seat, and the ML in my past experience is pretty decent. Lightweight enough, big basket, 5pt, decent canopy. But I just don't know about its overall quality and if I should push her away from it.

Whatever she picks, I intend to buy the carseat (she doesn't know that). I always buy the carseat. it's what i do. If she picks a pre-bundled one... I'll probably just buy whatever convertible she picks (for her husband's car). But I want her to get one she can easily use and a stroller she likes. I'd give her my SS1, but I don't know that AJ will be willing to part with it by then.

So, thoughts on it as a stroller?

[joolsplus3]

The only ML/SR32 combo we have on our floor is the Utopia, the brown with green and blue leaves on it. And even the separate items only have a SR22 to go with the ML's. There are mostly quattro tour/sr32 quattro tour sr22's travel systems, it's kind of lame. The SR32 is kind of upright for a newborn in the ML, though, because it's a smaller stroller or something? might be something to look at. Online, the brown 'berkshire' system is also an ML/32 combo.

She could get a 'coordinating' jeep jogger, they fit sr32's just fine...there's a gray with green one that might look nice with lemongrass (coordinating is the word, they definitely don't 'match', and some moms are obsessed with 'matching', sigh), and then she could keep the snap n go for errands?

Right, so the ML as a stroller... it's not bad... good for mall crawling and trips to the zoo and light walks. Stands alone when folded, not too bulky, reclines flat for newborns, big basket, adjustable handle.

:)

[southpawboston]

we had a ML as our very first stroller with DD1. i remember liking it a lot, although at the time we had no other reference standard against which to judge it. we thought it worked well and rolled easily.

now that we have owned a half-dozen strollers, in retrospect i still like the ML, although i also see two shortcomings: heavy and bulky when folded. i liked the large basket, the little closable bin up on top, and the fact that it rolled easily enough. i also liked that it took the snugride easily.

would i buy one again for a single child? if i had to use it with a graco infant seat, yes. if no infant seat, no.

[tarabelle]

I love my metrolite. It's a full size stroller without the weight. It's pretty durable too, considering my MIL sat on it trying to fold it. I know most people say that it's best for malls but I've walked on lots of grassy terrain and it actually handles it better than my Volo. My SS1 didn't perfectly match either, so I just picked two that kinda went.. I figured that after the first few months I wouldn't be using the SS1 as a carrier anymore and didn't need them to coordinate perfectly.

My ML has 2 sets of red peg things on the rails on the back that you can flip out to rest the SS1 on and change the angle.

[safeinthecar]

The ML is the Safety 1st Avenue of strollers. It's gonna do the job just fine for the majority of people. It's not the high-end kinda stroller picky connoisseurs are going to add to their collection, but most parents don't know there is a whole world of strollers just waiting to be obsessed over and will be perfectly happy.