Chicco vs Britax vs ... ?

[ooomalley]

My wife and I are expecting our first baby in March. We're trying to stick to the middle of the price range for most of our gear, but I'm rather lost amongst all the stroller options.

I am leaning toward the Britax B-Safe infant car seat because it's available for $125 online. Then I started looking for strollers... I thought it would be nice to have a stroller the carseat fits into, which would be the B-Agile. But the cheapest way to get that would be the "travel system" for a bit over $300, which isn't really any cheaper than the Chicco Keyfit 30 + Cortina travel system. Consumer Reports prefers the Chicco but around here the B-Agile seems more popular. But maybe it would be better to get a Keyfit 30 + First Years Indigo, (but that seems hard to find, and the new "Minnie Mouse" color is hideous) or a BJCM?

What do people around here recommend (in that price range)? The only wrinkle is that I'm 6'1 and wife is only a couple inches shorter, so a stroller for (somewhat) taller people would be great.

Also, I'd prefer to get a new carseat but a used stroller is fine. CL in our area is not great (and I'm far from a CL expert), but I'm looking. The only thing on there now is a 2013 BJCM for $120.

Thanks!

[AngB]

Definitely Britax over Chicco for strollers. We have the B-ready and have used it a ton. I personally like Britax seats over Chicco as well but seats these days are advanced enough that you can't really go wrong as long as it fits in your car correctly. The City Mini is a good option for strollers as well, I'm not really sure what to recommend for tall people because we aren't tall.

Consumer Reports for baby gear is unreliable at best- disregard them.

If you have a Buy Buy Baby near you, they have a nice variety of strollers you can push around and see which you like best.

We did it all wrong with our first (Graco car seat, which is fine, but also a Graco stroller, which are crappy.) You don't need a travel system because you will get limited use out of your infant seat. We use our strollers probably the most out of any of the baby gear we have bought. Spend the money on a good stroller and then get a car seat that works with it if you want, but I definitely wouldn't spend a lot of money on an infant seat (our first son was out of his infant seat by 6 months, our youngest was in it until 18 months...you never know but given your height I would guess you will use the infant seat less than a year.)

The only way I would do a used car seat is if it was from a very trusted friend, definitely not from someone you don't know on cl. A used stroller should be fine though. In addition to checking Craigslist, try buy/sell/trade groups on Facebook for your area. I know some people post there instead of CL these days although I personally still prefer CL.

[sunnyside]

I had the Chicco Keyfit and 1st years Indigo for my first and loved that combo. I switched to a Bob once she was older. I'm using the same for my next baby, due in March, though I'm also looking for something they can both ride in since we're city dwellers and it helps to have a double for getting around in the rain quickly (Pacific NW).

The Indigo is a great stroller for babies as they can parent face. I think there are other options for that now, but I haven't really looked into them.

[gymnbomb]

How much and in what settings will you be using your stroller?

We don't use ours a whole lot, and when we do it's in the mall or airport or for a short walk around our neighborhood. We got the Chicco KeyFit 30 travel system with the Neuvo stroller and are very happy with it so far. We definitely wanted to be able to click the car seat in, but also wanted a smaller stroller and like that it folds umbrella style. That wouldn't be the right answer for everyone, but it works great for us.

Edit: We paid something like $160-180 for the seat + stroller during one of the Target baby sales.