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Find the best in Baby Gear at Magic Beans
Bugaboo Fox Stroller vs UPPAbaby Vista Stroller 2018

Bugaboo Fox Stroller vs UPPAbaby Vista Stroller 2018

The Bugaboo Fox Stroller vs. The UPPAbaby Vista Stroller 2018!

The Bugaboo Fox and the UPPAbaby Vista will undoubtedly become some of the most hotly contested strollers of 2018. On one hand we have a completely new, unheralded masterwork from the minds at Bugaboo, and on the other we have the popular champion, the UPPAbaby Vista 2018, which has grown into a top option for new parents worldwide, let alone in the New England area.

It’s interesting to me that so many companies have mimicked the great things about Bugaboo, from the Cybex Priam’s frame design, to strollers that now have a designated color for all of their functional buttons (Bugaboo uses white, and UPPAbaby grey). But now its Bugaboo’s turn to evaluate the market, make some changes, and evolve to continue to be a strong competitor. Interestingly enough, it feels like a lot of the major features added or redesigned seem to mimic UPPAbaby’s most loved aspects. The following feature they mimicked makes them much more competitive…

Fold

Both the Bugaboo Fox stroller and the UPPAbaby Vista stroller now have great standing folds, meaning they fold in one singular piece. In theory, this is one of the most attractive features on a stroller. It makes your stroller take up less space, and it makes putting it into the trunk a one-step process. UPPAbaby strollers were always considered to have one of the best standing folds. They manage to stay incredible narrow when standing, and that still… stands! They’re still the most compact standing fold I’ve seen. The Fox is definitely the closest competitor, but the seat sticks out a bit more and can make it feel bulkier in terms of either floor or trunk space. As for hauling it into your trunk…

Imagine your groceries. In a perfect world, you’d love to pick them all up at once, haul the gigantic package into your enormous trunk, and be on your way. In reality, there are a few problems with that, such as how the heck you’re going to lift the weight of a whole grocery trip, or how you’re going to finagle a big ball of groceries into your tiny trunk.

My point is, there are more disadvantages to folding a stroller in one piece when putting it into your trunk. The stroller might not fit in the trunk without some finagling, and the ability to take off the seat might be just what you need. There’s also the weight issue. Would I rather lift 26lbs once? Or lift 19 lbs then lift 7lbs? Depending on your frame or strength, you may prefer the latter.

That said, depending on how you lift the stroller, you could hurt yourself or damage it. The UPPAbaby Vista has this genius hinge in the middle of the frame that allows it to fold almost exactly in half. But, that also happens to be the spot most people grab when lifting it for the first time, and boy is that a painful mistake. The seat is usually the second thing they grab, and with the Vista’s seat you’re grabbing plastic connection points that may not be able to hold up to the stress of you hulking it into your Tahoe every single time. With the Fox, Bugaboo decided to turn their belly bar into a load bearing bar, able to hold the weight of the stroller if you grab it from there.

When consulting with a customer, I usually say that the UPPAbaby Vista has the better standing fold for your home, but when it comes to your car, it ends up being more beneficial to parents to put their stroller in the trunk in two pieces. And when you take the seat off of the Bugaboo Fox, it’s unfathomable how small the frame gets. So the Vista wins for storing in your apartment, and the Fox wins for your car.

Weight

This one’s easy. The Bugaboo Fox is genuinely the lightest all-terrain stroller on the US market at the moment. Bugaboo’s all-terrain strollers are notorious for performing like a jogging stroller on the roughest terrains. Their suspension is incredible, the grip on their wheels is impeccable, and the way the stress is distributed evenly throughout the frame causes a super smooth ride. Plus, it holds a new Bugaboo record of a 48-pound weight limit in the stroller seat and 22 pounds in the basket. 

But there’s a reason the UPPAbaby Vista is 26.5lbs. The Vista is by far one of the lightest fully-featured, single-to-double strollers on the market. It has to be heavier to accommodate the weight of 87lbs of kids and 30lbs of storage. But to make such a light stroller hold so much weight, they had to make compromises in suspension, wheel material, and the metal they used for the frame.

Two of our other single-to-double strollers, the Baby Jogger City Select and the Silver Cross Wave, are nearly 31lbs. That’s because they wanted to accommodate for all the stress that weight can put on the frame. Baby Jogger uses heavier steel and Silver Cross uses steel and magnesium to improve longevity. That said, the UPPAbaby Vista has been around for almost a decade now, so if you have friends who own one, feel free to ask them how it held up! The Fox is the newer addition of the two, but it’s backed by a notorious history of long-lasting Bugaboo strollers.  

Single… or Double!

The Vista is a single-to-double stroller, allowing for up to 3 kids (if their ages line up right) on the stroller at once. The toddler seat, RumbleSeat, and Piggyback Board will each accommodate a child–and it even has options for twins. The stroller can accommodate two bassinets, car seats, or stroller seats at once. But the Vista is a single stroller at heart and functions increasingly well the fewer kids that are inhabiting it at once. The basket space (already gigantic) is more accessible with one child using it, and the push is much easier. Tandem (or front-to-back style) double strollers push more like a flat-bed truck. The length and distance between the driver and (usually) the heaviest weight makes maneuvering side-to-side and getting the stroller over curbs more of a struggle. Side-by-side doubles don’t have this problem simply due to their weight distribution.

That said, the Vista is still one of the lightest single-to-double strollers on the market, so don’t let discussion of the push scare you. But the Fox has tricks up its sleeve as well. Bugaboo makes the best ride-on board on the market called the Comfort Wheeled Board, a sturdy little single-wheel board with ample space for kiddo and a detachable seat, unlike the Vista. So you can ideally accommodate two properly aged kids on the Fox. But what people most frequently discount is the resale value. Bugaboo strollers are notoriously long-lasting and have impeccable resale value, allowing you to recoup some of its cost while you wade through the terribly imperfect sea of double strollers out there. But that also means it makes for a great gift once you’re done using it, because it will be both well-loved and ready to go for another round!

Now let’s conclude with some other aspects people may overlook when discussing them as single strollers!

Storage

The Vista is notorious for offering what is essentially a shopping cart worth of storage. It can hold almost any size item you please. It holds about 30lbs, which is more than the Fox’s 22lb, but not enough more to justify how much bigger it is. It’s a boon if you’re grocery shopping, but its size is a bit of an illusion. With the Fox you could probably fit about 22lbs of groceries before you ran out of space (and then they offer the Mammoth Bag), whereas with the Vista, you could probably fit upwards of 50lbs in the basket, so it’s up to you to be wary of how much weight you’re putting in it.

Style

Both strollers are gorgeous and perfectly on trend for 2018. The melange fabrics and natural textures they each use give the feel of a luxurious ride for your new baby, while also offering the resilience to hold up to messes. The biggest difference is that the Vista is sold in prepackaged color combos, whereas the Fox is much more customizable. You get the choice of two frame colors, 5 seat/bassinet fabric colors, 13 canopy colors, 3 shades of leather, and 4 wheel caps. If that sounds absurdly overwhelming, then you can order one of the 3 prepackaged options.

The Push

Bugaboo’s “star” system (used in all strollers besides the Bee) evenly distributes stress across the frame. This way, no one part of the stroller works too hard when you’re out and about. It makes for one of the smoothest, most silent pushes you can get. The UPPAbaby Vista is less nuanced, with a central suspension system located just below the hinge, and right under the toddler seat. Kiddo’s weight will rest on the spring and may put undue stress on it as you go over bumps or as they get older.

The wheels are another factor. The Fox has a more rubbery texture, which means it grips wetter surfaces like grass and snow better than the Vista will. Although technically rubberized, UPPAbaby’s tires feel more like hard foam. Because of this, they don’t add as much natural suspension to the stroller as some of the other tires on the market.

Little Things

The Bugaboo brake problem is finally fixed! They finally made a button that almost exactly mimics the Vista, allowing for a single press down to activate or release the brake. No more kicking up and ruining your pedicure or having the handbrake snap back and ruin your manicure.

Bugaboo now has a lock when folded, too! They added a unique mechanism to the center bar that locks the stroller and also allows for a one-handed release. Both the UPPAbaby Vista and Bugaboo Fox are incredibly smooth and easy to use when folding and opening. The Fox also kept one of the Buffalo’s most important features: beach mode. This means you can kick the stroller’s back wheels underneath and drag it behind you, two-wheeled. So you can bring it up stairs (without kiddo in it), up an escalator, or on the beach.

Both companies have a great lineup of accessories for you to customize your stroller, so you won’t be seeing slim pickins for either option. 

I hope you guys got a lot out of this little companion to our videos, and feel free to reach out to us at questions@mbeans.com with any questions or comments!

Mike is a Gear Guru at both our Boston and Brookline locations!

The post Bugaboo Fox Stroller vs UPPAbaby Vista Stroller 2018 appeared first on Spilling the Beans - Magic Beans.

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