The Quinny Zapp Xtra is, as you will know if you are on Facebook friend, a permanent fixture in our lives. You could say that it’s revolutionised our lives: since I took delivery in October I have started reducing rather than expanding, the collection of pushchairs at DG Manor. It’s testament to the fact that the little Zapp Xtra is designed with our life in mind that I use it in preference to a number of others that I bought for specific purposes over the past couple of years. I have been using twitter to tweet bite-sized reviews of the great bits in the last month. There are so many great features, it wasn’t hard to do, though I suspect I may have bored followers. But to give a different perspective, I asked a couple of ladies who’ve been raising children for longer than I have about their thoughts on the Zapp. They have five children and five grandchildren between them. When it comes to opinions, I wouldn’t mess with them. Readers, I give you the Grannies*….
[Oh, and if you are picturing two old ladies, sitting knitting in armchairs like those on the Shreddies adverts, you are waaaay off the mark.]
DG: Ladies, thank you for making time to give me your thoughts on the Quinny Zapp Xtra. I hope the tea is as you like it.
Grannies: We’re happy to be here: we love spending time with our beautiful granddaughters.
DG: Let me get straight to the point, what did you think when you heard I had another new pushchair?
Grannies: well, once you told us that you were given it in return for a thorough and fair assessment of its capabilities we were pleased. It’s not like you needed another pushchair. It did look nice though, smart and red. Of course it looked different to the pushchairs we had in our day. So small and only three wheels. I wasn’t sure it could hold a whole child without breaking, but it’s stronger than it looks. Technology nowadays.
DG: And how did you find it to push?
Grannies: I tried it on the pavement in a busy area, and was surprised by how easy it was to manoeuvre. It’s so light, it’s very easy to steer. You couldn’t get much shopping in that basket though. Mind you, we weren’t using it for shopping. And my handbag did fit on the handles.
I pushed it on the beach. I was astonished that I could push it at all on sand. And it had a super hood that helped keep the sun out of Dimples’ eyes. It was even easier pushing on the pavement.
DG: and what about the more fiddly bits: the straps, the seat recline? How was it using those?
Grannies: Now I liked the straps: they were very easy to put together and adjust, which is good because my arthritis can make that sort of thing difficult. The children didn’t look uncomfortable when strapped in either.
The seat recline was very simple too. I like that you can still lie a baby down in a pushchair. If a baby or child is asleep it will always be more comfortable laying down. That footrest is clever too: you can use the pushchair for any age group. I might like it myself 😉
DG: Did you like being able to alter the recline?
Grannies: It was very simple. Just one button and you could move the seat up and down. It felt quite solid, for such a small buggy. Not like the buggies we used to use.
DG: Brakes?
Grannies: They were simple. Red for on, grey for off. Nice and firm.
DG: Handles?
Grannies: A nice shape, very easy to push. I’m quite tall and didn’t stoop. I found them easy too and I’m shorter than you.
DG: Anything else?
Grannies: I didn’t use the raincover because the weather was lovely all weekend. I didn’t collapse the pushchair either: that looked a bit tricky, though you made it look simple. I’m sure once you’d done it a few times….What I loved was that it was so very easy to clean: PD spilled ice-cream, I gave it a quick wipe and the mark was gone. I have to say I was impressed. The children looked safe and comfortable. That’s the most important thing.
*OK, so I might have taken a few liberties with paraphrasing so that they actually sound like grannies and not glam go-getter 50-somethings with busier social lives than mine, but the opinions are all their own.
Disclosure: I am a Quinnycaster and have been given the Quinny Zapp Xtra in return for a thorough and frank road-test and review. I writre about it from time to time both here and on other social media sites. Which is not to say it isn’t a top pushchair.
And why not- they are super pushchairs 😉
I do love Quinny's,we have two in our household along with all the pushchairs and prams 😛