Need help choosing a travel system!

Baby Girl's due date is getting closer and closer, and we need a travel system.

I want the Britax B-Agile/B-Safe but hubby has flat out said no to the price. He wants to buy a cheaper travel system and spend more on a convertible.

Has to fit a potentially small newborn (DD was under 7lb)

Has to be budget-friendly (ideally, no more than the $300 mark)

Has to have a car seat that comes with strap covers for the neck.

Doesn't need to be crazy easy to install, but nothing that I'll want to run over out of frustration either.

AND I'm in Canada. Suggestions?

Travel system strollers suck. I'd rather spend $300 on a good stroller and use a convertible from birth than be stuck with a crappy stroller. How about Valco Snap4? Go through ebates and shop.ca and get 15% back. http://www.shop.ca/m20/c/valco-baby-snap4-SNP0392-22403661

And you could get a Graco car seat through there too with 15% back and maybe be closer to your budget? Looks like the Graco adapter is out of stock on shop.ca but you could get it elsewhere.

There are other strollers as well. The baby stuff ships direct from reputable baby stores. One being Snuggle Bugz.

They have the B-Agile too http://www.shop.ca/m20/c/britax-b-agile-U341783-21560990

The 15% ebates could end any time though.

TechnoGranola said:

Travel system strollers suck. I'd rather spend $300 on a good stroller and use a convertible from birth than be stuck with a crappy stroller. How about Valco Snap4? Go through ebates and shop.ca and get 15% back. http://www.shop.ca/m20/c/valco-baby-snap4-SNP0392-22403661

And you could get a Graco car seat through there too with 15% back and maybe be closer to your budget? Looks like the Graco adapter is out of stock on shop.ca but you could get it elsewhere.

There are other strollers as well. The baby stuff ships direct from reputable baby stores. One being Snuggle Bugz.

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SO agree with this. Do not get a travel system package like any of the Chicco or Graco boxes at BRU. The infant carrier will be solid, but the stroller will be a throw away in frustration if it didn't break before it.

We got the Britax B-Safe carrier recently and it clicks in perfectly (they make an attachment) with our 3+ year old Baby Jogger City Mini (the B-Agile is a competent copy of this stroller w/o the need for an attachment). That stroller is a tank, lasts forever, light, is INCREDIBLY easy to fold and store, and will be the only stroller you will really need until the kid outgrows the need for a stroller (i.e. like 6-7 years old...they still like it if you go to Disney World or something where they have to walk a lot...long day at a park, etc...not to mention another child down the road).

There are some deals out there...so if you can figure out what you want, then be on the look out for the best deal. I can say with confidence, you can get these two items for right around $300-$350 if you look hard enough. With the ONLY caveat being that this is based on US pricing which I think is lesser than Canada. You will keep your AWESOME stroller for a lot longer and use it for multiple kids.

The only other option would be to get an infant carrier and a frame stroller for the time being to span out your big purchases. Then buy the nicer City Mini type stroller months from now. Frame strollers just snap the infant carrier in, have a basket, and don't take up a lot of room. They are a little more difficult to collapse and such, but it's basic. Should cost you around $200 for the two.

Just don't buy a travel system stroller.

On top of the typically higher Canadian pricing, it's that we don't get the sales and coupon codes that you do in the USA. So deals are very few and far between on any brand name stroller. The 15% deal I referred to is probably the best deal out there right now and it's not a common deal and won't last long.

Baby boutiques may have sales in store but they often aren't advertised online and with no competition in many cities, they don't need to have sales. When there are baby boutique sales they often suck. Example, "spend $350 or more on a stroller and $50 on accessories and get a $25 gift certificate to use on a future purchase starting a month from now. :ROTFLMAO:

TechnoGranola said:

Ok top of the typically higher Canadian pricing, it's that we don't get the sales and coupon codes that you do in the USA. So deals are very few and far between on any brand name stroller. The 15% deal I referred to is probably the best deal out there right now and it's not a common deal and won't last long.

Baby boutiques may have sales in store but they often aren't advertised online and with no competition in many cities, they don't need to have sales. When there are baby boutique sales they often suck. Example, "spend $350 or more on a stroller and $50 on accessories and get a $25 gift certificate to use on a future purchase starting a month from now. :ROTFLMAO:

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Why is Canada so difficult to buy product? I can speculate, but was curious if there was an identified reason.

If you're set on a travel system I have the chicco travel system and it's been great for us! We used the infant seat for about 10 months with DD and will use it again when baby 2 gets here in December.

The stroller has not been that bad, but I have nothing to compare to. For the first two years we used it frequently but for trips to the mall and such. For the last year I've used it 3-5 times a week to walk about 3.5 miles each time.

Again, I have nothing to compare to and I'm hoping to get a new stroller, but only because of changing needs. The chicco will probably go to grandmas house at that point because needs are different there then they are at home.

All that said, if I was starting completely over, I'd strongly consider a convertible from birth and a better stroller, but that might also depend on when baby was due.

DawgDad said:

Why is Canada so difficult to buy product? I can speculate, but was curious if there was an identified reason.

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For carseats, at least, there are quite a few reasons:

-smaller market means less return on investment, and lower volume of sale.
-different regulations mean re-designing and re-testing along with additional components (arb, bolsters) until the seats pass our standards. Different packaging and manuals.
-increased cost of shipping from manufacturer to retail store and/or to customer.
-increased cost of materials and labour, as well as importation/customs fees if made outside of Canada.
-everything costs more in Canada :/

DawgDad said:

Why is Canada so difficult to buy product? I can speculate, but was curious if there was an identified reason.

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Less population so less people to buy the items, distance to get things here is greater so shipping costs are typically higher for the distributors, population is way more spread out so distributor to some stores can be 3000 miles or more which increases cost of items to stores, for many companies it's not worth it to have a Canadian distributor so the US distributor covers Canada as well which means everything goes to the USA first then comes here and increases shipping and travel costs and can increase duty costs. Due to lower population we don't have as many large online retailers or big box stores that can buy mass amounts of a product at a lower price.

Those are some reasons anyway.

I so tell people this all the time: don't buy travel systems!

If your set on having an infant seat, can you go check out several in stores (or a friends) just to make sure you love it.

Then make your stroller decision separate based on the merits of the stroller alone and your remaining budget.

I know some people love their travel system stroller but a lot more ditch them in a year or two out of dislike.

I don't think anyone here is considering a Bob stroller, separate car seat adapter and a car seat as a travel system. We're talking about the sets sold as packages where you typically don't use an adapter, the car seat sits on the tray and attaches to the stroller without having to add another connecting piece.

Even the Bob Motion package they sell as a travel system comes with adapters that need to be added for the car seat. My mind does put this in the same class as what we think of when someone says "travel system".