Baby Jogger City Elite Stroller - An Unsolicited Review

I really, really like our stroller. I wasn't asked by anyone to do a review, but when I really like something I tell anyone and everyone I can.

Our stroller is the Baby Jogger City Elite. When I was expecting the little man, we went a little Craigslist crazy and bought as much stuff as we could on there. We really liked the Peg Perego strollers, and found a decent (we thought) one on Craigslist for a fairly good deal that came with the matching car seat and base.

What we didn't think about was any future babes that might come along. For such a planner this was very unlike me, but I was a little obsessed and have been known to make the constant occasional impulse purchase. When we were pregnant with the little miss, we realized that the stroller we had was not going to cut it with two kids. The little man was showing no signs of being done with the stroller so we needed to find a solution.

We started to investigate double strollers. Man, those things are WIDE. And now please allow me to go off on a brief rant... Why is it that stores that are designed specifically to cater to parents of young children (i.e. toy stores, kids clothing stores, etc) have the NARROWEST aisles on the planet? It is guaranteed that 95% of the people shopping in these stores will be wielding some sort of stroller, and at the best of times the space between racks is barely enough for one person to walk through. I cannot even imagine trying to get through one of those stores with a double-wide, and I'm not really okay with leaving my kiddies unprotected at the front of a store while I peruse the merchandise. While they try to increase sales by stuffing as much product into their stores as possible, they are in fact losing my business because I CAN'T GET AROUND THEIR STORE! Rant complete.

Obviously I was not leaning towards a double-wide. Some inline double strollers are so long it's like wheeling three stacked shopping carts around. The one that did initially catch my eye was the Phil & Teds Sport. You see them EVERYWHERE in Vancouver, and they offer a jumpseat option that doesn't add too much size to the profile of the original stroller. It also had beefy inflatable wheels which is something we were looking for (because apparently I think I'm going to go for long sporty walks over bumpy terrain).

For us, the drawbacks with the Phil & Teds were a) once the jumpseat is in place, the child in the back effectively takes up all the basket storage as foot space, or steps on anything you might be carrying in there and b) at 6'5", Mr. Awesome kept banging his knees on the jumpseat. This was the deal breaker. Bye bye Phil. Check ya later Ted.

Here is what we were looking for in our dream stroller:

• some sort of jumpseat
• an adjustable handle so Mr. Awesome could push it without being hunched over
• easy set-up and collapse
• inflatable tires
• a seat that can recline to almost flat
• Something that didn't cost $700+

Really, our list wasn't unreasonable, but we were having trouble finding what we wanted. My friend Michelle was expecting and told me about the Baby Jogger. It was only just starting to sell in Canada, but the woman had done her research and discovered this somewhat hidden gem. It sounded good and they had just picked theirs up so we went over to check it out. SOLD! It had everything on our list and it even had things we didn't KNOW we wanted!

Here are my favourite things about our stroller:

• The jumpseat (pictured on the right, on a different stroller). It sits in front of the main seat and holds up to 33lbs. Once your baby is 6 months old, they then move up to the jump seat and the older child moves to the main seat. It clicks in to the "universal mounting bracket" that can also accommodate a car seat adapter bar, a snack tray, etc etc etc.
• The quick-fold action. You literally grab the fabric handle in the seat and the whole thing collapses and folds in half to a surprising small size.
• The inflatable tires. They are 12", beefy and release very easily. While we were in Hawaii we couldn't get through a smaller-than-average door on a train and Mr. Awesome just whipped off one of the wheels, drove through and popped it back on again. (He kind of looked like a superhero in that moment, but maybe that's just to me.)
• The giant canopy. This wasn't something I realized I needed, but it is fantastic. It's huge and requires no creative draping of receiving blankets to ensure your little darling is protected from the elements.
• The adjustable handle. There are so many positions on the handle that I swear this stroller can be pushed by anyone 4ft - 7ft tall. Andre the Giant could have pushed this thing comfortably.
• The details. There are peekaboo flaps and storage pockets that I am still discovering. They're everywhere!

The things I don't love (yes, there are a couple) are:

• The main storage compartment. The basket itself is a decent size, but it's kind of difficult to access. Not difficult enough to be a deal breaker, just kind of a pain sometimes.
• The drink holder that you can buy to clip on. There is one reason I haven't bought it. It's grey and blue. My stroller is black. All the City Elite strollers have black handles and no component of them is grey. So WHY did they design an add-on that doesn't "go?" Just a pet peeve.
• While writing this review, I checked on the Baby Jogger website for the jumpseat and couldn't find it. Maybe I wasn't looking in the right place, but did eventually find it on Amazon. I'm hoping it hasn't been discontinued - that would definitely fall under "don't love."
• That's it. Everything else is awesome.

As for price, it really depends on where you look. It's way cheaper in the US, but that's a fact of life for us Canadians most of the time. I just checked on Amazon and it ranges from $329 to around $400 ($450-500 in Canada). Where it gets a bit pricier is with the add-ons, but it's still way cheaper than some other options out there when you add it all together. The jump seat will run you around $80-90, the car seat adapter around $60-70, not to mention all the other goodies you could possibly want. We lucked out and found ours on www.leftoversstore.com for just over $300US and had it shipped to a friend's PO Box. My forward thinking, good friend Michelle, while pregnant with Baby #1, purchased the jumpseat with their second child in mind. They were kind enough (thank you, thank you, thank you) to loan us the jumpseat until they need it, but it is absolutely worth the price if you don't have a Michelle like I do.

There you go, that's my review. It's a great stroller and I recommend it whole-heartedly.