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The Graco MetroSport met all of these requirements. We purchased ours in the tasteful grey Espirit print. It is suitable from birth, and the puschair seat is fully adjustable by means of a pull cord so you can suit your child's preferences exactly. It is made with a lightweight aliminium ... Read review
Advantages: lightweight,large shopping basket, sun canopy on car seat, one handed folding, parent tray, child play tray with snack and cup holder Disadvantages: shopping hard to get to when child is reclined or car seat is attached
...upholstery.
The Graco MetroSport met all of these requirements. We purchased ours in the tasteful grey Espirit print. It is suitable from birth, and the puschair seat is fully adjustable by means of a pull cord so you can suit your child's preferences exactly. It is made with a lightweight aliminium chassis causing the pushchair to weigh in at about a fairly modest 11 kg give or take a few grammes. It has fully lockable swivel wheels ... ...meaning that it gives a very nice smooth ride. I have even managed to bring home eggs in this down country lanes up and down intermittent pavement without having to tiptoe! It has a sun and wind canopy as well as coming with a quilted apron. The apron was substantial enough that with a lightweight fleece blanket and a pram suit on the baby, I did not need to purchase the additional cosytoes until our daughter outgrew the length of the apron at 17 ... more
We had a good look about at pushchairs before our baby was born. My hubby is taller than me by several inches, and I am err..petite. Petite as in just a smidgin below 5 feet in height. This meant one of our requirements for a pushchair was that we wanted it to be as comfortable as possible for both of us to use.
It also had to be on the light side and easy to fold, as during the week I would be relying on buses for transport. I needed a large shopping basket as I would do most of the grocery shopping with it. We preferred a travel system as we could then remove the small sleeping infant from the car without disturbing her over much by attaching her car seat to the pram. And on a final note, we preferred it not to have a really ugly plaid sofa appearance nor to look like a trendy deck chair had been raided for upholstery.
The Graco MetroSport met all of these requirements. We purchased ours in the tasteful grey Espirit print. It is suitable from birth, and the puschair seat is fully adjustable by means of a pull cord so you can suit your child's preferences exactly. It is made with a lightweight aliminium chassis causing the pushchair to weigh in at about a fairly modest 11 kg give or take a few grammes. It has fully lockable swivel wheels and rear brakes, and has an all around suspension system meaning that it gives a very nice smooth ride. I have even managed to bring home eggs in this down country lanes up and down intermittent pavement without having to tiptoe! It has a sun and wind canopy as well as coming with a quilted apron. The apron was substantial enough that with a lightweight fleece blanket and a pram suit on the baby, I did not need to purchase the additional cosytoes until our daughter outgrew the length of the apron at 17 months of age. It has a three point harness for fastening your little one in and has a single pull adjustment for loosening and tightening the straps. It has a very generous mesh shopping basket whose only fault is that with the car seat attached or the seat in full recline, you cannot reach. This seems to be a common problem with many pushchairs however. It closes with one hand, which takes a bit of practice, and has a little curved hook by the parent tray that keeps it folded closed. When closed, it is able to be freestanding.
Two other very nice features are the parent and child trays. By the adjustable height handle (so a tall or short person can comfortably push), there is a parent tray with cup holders, perfect for parking soft drinks, change, or that cappucino you could not resist from the coffee shop in town. Across the seat, there is a child's play tray with a snack well and a cup/bottle holder well too. The play tray can be swivelled open by the parent pressing a recessed button (too unwieldy for a child to do) meaning you can easily place a toddler in the seat if need be without trying to sqeeze them under the tray. Great for when they decide to be temperamental! There is plenty of leg and seat room for a toddler/preschooler so I anticipate being able to use it until she is about 4 years old, and she is a solid little Miss Podge too!
It can be a bit unwieldy when trying to load it folded onto an older style bus with bags in tow, but with more and more buses being pram friendly, I am not overly bothered as the capacity, comfort, and sheer durabilty outweigh the relatively minor inconvenience. Having tried other pushchairs in the past with my other children, it is a common problem often mitigated by common couretesy as other bus riders and occasionally drivers help me load pram, baby and bags onto the old bus.
The car seat it came with is a Stage 0+ car seat, which is a portable rear facing car seat suitable for infants from birth to 13 kilograms. It is made to not only fit on the pushchair, where it faces rearwards, but there is an optional base available at extra cost that fits into the car. Basically the base is fastened to the car and the seat snaps into the base to help the seat fit the car better, and ease of getting the seat in and out of the car. Included is a matching head hugger to keep a newborn's head from lolling about unsupported, and it can also be used in the pushchair should you wish to (remember young infants should not be completely upright!).
Now for ease of care. The seat cover on the pushcahir will completely remove for machine washing and washes up a treat, my only quibble being it unscrews in some places and makes me personally feel as if I am trying to program the VCR. Hence I have hubby do it as he knows how to properly use a screw driver and the sight of screws does not swnd him screaming in technical horror. So far in 18 months of almost daily use, I have only had to actaullay machine wash it twice, as the fabric features a wipe clean type finish and a good hoover for crumbs and a sponging usually makes it all nice and spotless again. The car seat cover unattaches easily even for clumsy old me, and is machine washable. Both covers must be line dried.
Cost for this travel system set us back £199 at Mothercare, optional extras such as the car seat base, cosytoes, etc. all run extra. Roughly about £29.99 extra each. A good raincover will set you back about the same. It fits easily into the back of our volvo estate, but then so does almost anything! having said that, I can fit it easily in the boot of my inlaw's compact 3 door and we still fit shopping inside. And boy can she shop! A hint I have for making the most of the space available in a comapct boot is to fold down the parent handle, it will gain you a few extra inches of space.
Advantages: non-slip rubber grip and level indicator Disadvantages: shorter seat & harness than other models
...a lot of attention.
The graco car seat is compatible with a number of travel systems, including metrosport travel system which is what I bought. The car seat alone is approx £70, however bought with the compatible pushchair it costs £240. I waited until a mothercare sale and was lucky to get it for £140 in the discontinued grey and white stripe design. The car seat fits into the pushchair and hence it is called a travel system, it is a fantastic ... ...of the car and into the pushchair or into your home etc with very little disturbance, this is a godsend in the first few weeks when your baby is new.
The travel system weighs about 11 kg which is much lighter than many other travel systems on the market, this is particularly useful if you are not very strong, and I find it much easier to maneouver.
The first stage car seat is suitable from birth upto 6-9 months, or approx 10 kg, after this it will ...
trickster 10.06.2002
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Graco Metrosport Travel System
Advantages: Easy folding, Shopping basket, swivel wheels Disadvantages: Bit heavy, bit bulky when folded
...the folding mechanism of the Graco Metrosport was the best I came across. You can do it with one hand if you have to and it just collapses almost by itself. It has a hook to secure it but I found that it makes a small indent in the tray after repeatedly hooking it. You don't notice this when the pushchair is in use, just when you're hooking again. The swivel wheel option makes it much easier to push around as well but you have the option to not use ... ...This may not be a Graco design fault however, just something you have to put up with when carrying a baby in car seat. Also, and I don't know if this is because we use a base, but when the car seat is used in the car and the baby's asleep and the car is in motion, his head never stays comfortably back. The seat is not reclined enough but I don't know if this is for a safety reason or maybe its a design flaw. I have to sit in the back with my son ...
Staterka 03.04.2004
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Graco Metrosport Travel System
Advantages: Detachable car seat, fashionable, extended handles Disadvantages: chunky, small shopping basket
...i read about the metrosport graco system and saw that its handle could lift up i knew it was the pram for me. It was easy to put together i did it all myself while i was pregnant.
The best thing about this system is the detachable car seat! we used it so much and still do even though josh is now 6months old! We bought an autobase which sits in your car all the time and when you put baby in the car, instead of having to mess about strapping the car ... ...you just click the carseat onto it!! josh was born at the beginning of october and so when we brought him home from the hospital it was pretty windy, it was so cool just to click him into the base and go, where all the other dads where struggling with theirs!! It has a built on sun canopy, unfotunately we have had much call for it, but the spots of rain we do have are kept off joshua by the canopy. It has a head support for tiny babies which can ...
laura_sharpy 10.04.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: very helpful Review of Graco Metrosport Travel System
Advantages: Comfortable, Suspension, Adjustable Handle Disadvantages: Folding is Awkward, Shopping hard to get to
Carseat - The Graco Autobaby carseat is a great seat for small babies, it's well padded, comes with a head hugger and a removable suncanopy. Unlike some carseats the canopy is not connected to the handle which means it can be folded back until needed. Also the handle stays upright when the carseat in place creating a rollcage to protect the baby and also being a handy place to hang a toy to keep them amused.
I would recommend getting the base unit ... ...or it won't fold properly.
Overview - This is a great travel system for a couple with a roomy car but as a single bus travelling mum not too good. My daughter is one in a couple of weeks and I'm already on a Britax carseat and a Graco citilite. ...
kittylovescatnip 20.01.2003
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Graco Metrosport Travel System
Advantages: Large basket, comes with car seat, cheap. Disadvantages: Quality isn't good, anything in the basket is impossible to get to if you have the car seat on or the seat fully reclined.
...go shopping.
I found the Graco MetroSport and tried it out in the shop. What I liked about it was the fact you could fold it with one hand and it wasn't as wide as most the other travel systems. The basket was a good size and the wheels looked large and sturdy for all sorts of terrain. At first I loved this buggy, I walked everywhere with it and it was great. About a year after the pole that slides under the basket broke off and this pole is metal, ... ...past the year gaurantee so I didn't even bother to tell the manufacturer. I took off the coverings to wash them once and that was quite a hassle trying to figure out how to do it. Then I had to put it all back on and I noticed a lot of the clips are plastic and I only washed the seat cover once and put it back and the clips don't go fully back into place. The wheels have fallen off a number of times and now they don't swivel properly.
The one handed ...
Rivik 16.11.2005
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Ciao members have rated this review on average: helpful Review of Graco Metrosport Travel System
