Quinny Freestyle 3

My mother brought the Quinny for me from our local Lloyds Chemist. It was a pram for my baby but she was buying so she got the most say in what she got. Typical!

So has anybody spotted this pram?? They come in 2 different systems, the three wheeler and the four wheeler. I myself have a 3 wheeler, but they are very similar, with similar price tags, and all the attachments fit on both the same way. Now the most striking thing about the ...
...the actual wheel on the Quinny tilts to about 60 degree angles, making it a dream push, turning corners is easy as counting 1,2,3. No need to actually lift the front wheel of the pram up like some models. When we first got the pram, a woman actually stopped me in the street to tell me the front wheel was falling off! She was quite shocked when I told her it supposed to be like that.

So – what can you get?
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My mother brought the Quinny for me from our local Lloyds Chemist. It was a pram for my baby but she was buying so she got the most say in what she got. Typical!

So has anybody spotted this pram?? They come in 2 different systems, the three wheeler and the four wheeler. I myself have a 3 wheeler, but they are very similar, with similar price tags, and all the attachments fit on both the same way. Now the most striking thing about the 3 wheeler is the front wheel. It tilts. Yup, that’s right you read it right. On conventional 3 wheelers the front wheel tends to just swivel, but the actual wheel on the Quinny tilts to about 60 degree angles, making it a dream push, turning corners is easy as counting 1,2,3. No need to actually lift the front wheel of the pram up like some models. When we first got the pram, a woman actually stopped me in the street to tell me the front wheel was falling off! She was quite shocked when I told her it supposed to be like that.

So – what can you get?
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Well initially you need to buy the actual chassis, and then you buy what suits you.
The items they have are:

- Carrycot – birth to 3 months (ish)
- 1st stage car seat (usually 9 months max depending on size)
- Pushchair with canopy (doesn’t lie flat – recommended from 6 months onwards)
- Rain covers (they do them for all 3 and are purchased separately)
- CosyToes (for the pushchair)
- Rucksack

It should be noted that they don’t do a parasol. When we brought the pram in 2002 we brought the whole lot. As my boy was to be a winter baby and thought the carrycot was an essential. Now purchase cost for it was around £450, and prices have remained at a similar level on the new models. They seem to bring out a new model every year or so. And its worth noting that they seem to change everything, no longer stock bits of old models, and new bits on models don’t fit on older chassis. (Hope that make sense!

Construction
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Okay so when you buy a pram, you’ve usually got a big belly and your patience is wearing thin, concentration has gone out the window – you want to see your new pram all put together and you want it NOW! (well maybe that’s only me, well we skip that bit!)

DO NOT even think that this will be a 5 minute process. As you would be mis informed. I spent over an hour getting things out of boxes, trying to work out the instructions which might as well been written in Greek for all the use they were. It seems like a kid who can’t read, the pictures help! So I put the bits together looking at the pictures on the big boxes mostly.

First off all you need to put the wheels on the main chassis. This is the easy part (if you get in difficulty here then your stuffed forever) – the 2 back wheels just slot in, and the front wheel you just turn a knob thing (technical term you may know about!)

The hard bit comes to trying to fix the “slotty things” in (oh do you like my very specific technical terms??) How the pram works is that you can have either the carrycot or car seat on for the 1st couple months, and then you put the pushchair bit on. You can’t have the pushchair bit on and the car seat on too. I.e. it can’t multi task and must have bee designed by a bloke… When you put have the chassis up, you can’t fix the carrycot/car seat straight on. You have to put these two indescribable pieces of plastic in to some slots. Sounds easy but unfortunately the black bits of plastic have to be inserted on angles into grooves and it’s quite easy to get the left and right one mixed up. Once you have that sorted, all you need to do is place the carrycot/carrycot on top and it clicks into place.

Now that process is childs play compared to fixing the pushchair part. It has so many bits that have to be adjoined to other bits, round bits of the chassis, poppers and then Velcro bits that you have no idea where they go, and then you think you get it sussed and then when you realise you cant collapse the bloody thing you know you got it wrong. Now I ended up going back into the shop I brought it from (our Local Lloyds) to ask the nursery assistant to show me on their demo exactly how to do it as it was driving me crazy!!!

THE DRIVE
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The drive does not differ if you have different units on the chassis; it has very big wheels, which are pumped up (you get a pump with pram and the wheels are fully pumped up when delivered!) These wheels mean that the overall pram has a very good suspension and baby gets a very smooth ride. Its lovely to push off or on road, although I must admit I have never taken it on the beach because its an expensive pram and the salt and sand would just make it rust.

On road I like it, cos you can just push the pram leave go and it carry’s on for ages. This pram basically pushes itself!!! It’s also a pleasure to push as it has a easily changeable height change for the handlebars… so would suit couples who have a large difference in height.

Of course with most 3 wheelers, the pram comes with a nifty little bell and a brake on the handle bar, which is great when going down hill. Although I’m not sure about brakes with other prams, but this brake will not stop the pram, it just gently slows it so that when going down hill the pram doesn’t pull you so much

LIFESTYLE
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This pram was originally brought to be mainly “my” pram, unfortunately it didn’t work out like that I’ve ended up with my trusty maclaren!

Firstly you have to think what your needs in a pram are. If its for going into town, doing a bit of shopping then it might not be for you. Its not really a great pram for this, and not just because of the smallish shopping basket, but because it’s a bulky pram. I know 3 wheelers tend to be bulky – but this seems to be bulkier then most.

If you live a rural area and doing daily walks it’ll be great for you.

Another thing to think about is cars and the sizes of boots. The back wheels are easily removable by the push of a button, which allows it to fit into most boots, but this is just an added pain when your stressed, trying to get screaming child to be quiet etc, and you may have already tried to fiddle with the slotty things that you need to take off, which ain’t easy. So really it is a big deal. I have put my pram into a Ford Focus/Fiesta – the wheels need to be removed, along the VW Golf. It fits easily, wheels an all, into the generous boot of the Citroen Picasso, and all Estate cars I have tried.

MISC
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- The waterproofs for the pushchair come in a lovely little cylinder bag. It’s lovely until you have taken the waterproofs out and are trying to put them back. Think along the lines of trying to pack a tent up.

- The cosy toes are specifically for the pram, are fully fleece lined, fit to the pram easily, and the top bit comes off to leave just a fleecy lined seat for your baba. James has unfortunately grown out of this at about 18 months, but he is quite a large baby.

- Colours? Oh lots of them, too many to mention, but include:

Paprika a nice but bright burnt orange
Aubergine – more like burgundy
Khaki – could be dangerous when eating chocolate
Dark Blue
Grey – quite a dark grey, has a blueish tint to it
Fire Engine Red
Black

- Forgot to mention it collapses easily!

- The canopy on the pushchair has a few pockets to put keys/mobile/purse in

- Very safe to push at night because it has reflective material on the sides of the canopy, and especially on the waterproofs, it has all the edging in this reflective stuff

BUT….
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The major downside of this pram for me was the manufacturers themselves. In Spring 2003 we noticed that our Pushchair sear/canopy/cosy toes were not the same shade. We went back to Lloyds and told them, they said no problem would get us new set. After lots of hassle, and Quinny saying they would send this down and that down and nothing appearing. We finally got told that we couldn't have original colour. They only had one colour they could send us. We accepted this and it did eventually arrive after a month. But minus the cosy toes. We are still waiting for this to be all sorted out.

Lloyds the Chemist have told us that it’s not the first trouble they have had with Quinny on similar issues.

SO…
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It’s a great pram – as with all things it has its downfalls and its good points. For the right person it could be the pram of their dreams, but they’d have to be able to afford it 1st!

~ Clare xx
 

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