Mamas and Papas Aria Advance Pushchair

I really don't like this aria advance pushchair. The car seat is really uncomfortable our baby is all hunched up and cries most of the time she's in it. It's awkward to get into the pushchair, with the flappy things folding in on themselves, so if the baby is asleep when you take her out of the car, she's sure awake by the time the car seat is fitted in. When the car seat is fitted onto the pushchair, you cannot fit anything into the shopping basket - at least nothing bigger than a pint of milk. the only advantage, is the pushchair itself is lightweight. But I really wish I'd gone for another Graco one, like we had for our son.

There are many different models of the Mamas and Papas Aria, all of which are very different. The new models on sale today have an easy one handed folding mechanism.

This pushchair is not the best on the market but if going on holiday or for use as a second pushchair then its fine.

It well maintained, oiled and cleaned the Aria will last your child from newborn (or 6 month) to 3 years easily.

This is true, honest advice.

I KNOW THIS IS A LONG REVIEW BUT PLEASE READ IT IF YOU ARE THINKING OF BUYING THIS PUSHCHAIR!!!

I think that the Mamas and Papas Aria Advance Pushchair is the worst buggy I have owned (and believe me I've owned many!).

A couple of months ago I downgraded from my Inglesina zippy, costing around £250 for the Aria Advance after my friend bought one and claimed it was really good (she doesn't think so now). It's light at just 5kg, is from birth, fits a car seat and carry cot, and has all the usual stuff you expect from a buggy, so thinking that I could have a lighter, smaller option than my Inglesina to hop on and off buses with, I bought it from Argos at £69.99 thinking it's Mamas and Papas; it's got to be decent! How wrong I was!

Within about 3 weeks of buying it, the wheels started to become stiff and hard to control. It's very hard to do the harness clips up, and also very hard to get up on to pavements, and if there's a paving slab that's sticking up slightly it could almost give your baby whip lash! The heavier your baby gets the heavier it is to push and the worse the wheels get. My friend also has this problem along with a faulty harness. After reading reviews on the internet I found most people who purchased this pushchair also had this problem!

Over the next couple of weeks, this just seemed to get worse, so I took it back to Argos, where they immediately spotted the fault and replaced it with a new one.

To be honest, the steering on the new one wasn't great after we had travelled home with it, but I didn't want to complain again until I was absolutely sure, as my partner is thoroughly fed up of my buggy obsession and would think I just fancied a different one!

I carried on with it for a few weeks to see how it went, and was shocked as I was pushing my son to the local shop with it, when the wheels went completely out of control and the buggy swung into the road with our 15 month old son in whilst cars zoomed past, narrowly missing him!

After I'd struggled to get it back on the pavement I carried on my way very alarmed, only for it to then swerve into some parked cars!

I am now too scared to take my son out in the pushchair, and I am now having to save up for a more expensive one because myself and my partner are too scared to buy something cheap again!

I have contacted Mamas and Papas twice about this product to complain, but they have yet to reply, so it seems their customer service is the same as their Aria Advance.