My honest opinion on the Quinny Zapp Xtra - A review

A few months ago I was chosen as a Quinny Caster and got a Quinny Zapp Xtra to review. I was very pleased because I had a regular Quinny Zapp a few years ago which I used as a travel pushchair or when car boot space was paramount and I was really disappointed with the lack of a recline feature on it.

The Quinny Zapp Xtra came in a relatively small box and it was a doddle to set up... specially because I hate looking at instructions! You can view our attempt at putting it together quickly with my 4 year old while my toddler was asleep and I needed to wash my hair, yes, you can view the video right here!

 The frame is the same as the Quinny Zapp but the seat is separate with its own frame, it is no longer small to put in the car though, as the seat occupies a lot of boot space compared to the Quinny Zapp but it has more features as now you can recline it.

It also allows you to have your child face you, which is great but if you use it this way you can't have the seat upright, it has to be reclined slightly or all the way back because of the frame underneath. I find this a bit of a shame as my toddler doesn't like to be reclined unless she is sleeping, but I do prefer to have her face me, specially in the winter as then my body shields her from the cold harsh wind and if she is facing forward I can't do that unless I put the rain cover on but then she doesn't get the fresh air.

Yes, I guess I am somewhat of a fussy mummy but I was expecting something different from this pushchair because of it's name. I expected it to be the same practicality and size as the Quinny Zapp just with extra features but it is far from that. In my opinion they should have named it something else as to avoid disappointment of people comparing it to its predecessor.

As a different pushchair it is a nice design, I like the fact that it comes with it's own basket and a nice hood which has a little flap for the sun too which is removable, this was a really ingenious idea! You can see it on the pics above.

The rain cover is cool too as it only goes around the actual seat frame and not the pushchair frame although if you use a foot muff it comes up a bit small, saying that I am not using a Quinny Zapp foot muff as I already had my own , I also found it difficult to close it on the sides where it goes around the joints of the pushchair frame.

One thing that I think has let this pushchair down has to be the small wheels, Since October I have had at least 4 occasions where I have almost tipped the pram over and landed my daughter on the floor face first! The worse of them is documented here, the front wheel tends to get stuck on cracks on tarmac or uneven pavements and if you are walking at a quick pace and not expecting it you can land on the floor and hopefully not with your child hurt. Due to this I say you must never ever use this pram without strapping your child in properly and snuggly, but then again I wouldn't tell you not to strap your child in on any other pram either!

That is my honest view of this pushchair, the Quinny Zapp Xtra has many good points but it could be an even better pushchair by having a purposely designed frame for it instead of using the Zapp frame.

Now I have this eerie feeling that at Quinny Casters HQ they are gonna have a picture of me on their dart board to attack me on their breaks!!!

Monica xx
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