When I was pregnant with J (born August 2010), I’d
been working for the company for a few years, and before I saw two lines appear
on a test I knew if it happened that I would choose the Maxi-Cosi Mura
pushchair. When it happened, I ordered the Tango Red colour from the 2010
Collection, and as well as the Mura I had a Mura pram body for when he was
new-born and a CabrioFix carseat to be used with EasyBase2.
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| Maxi-Cosi Mura 2010 Tango Red |
The Mura isn’t for everyone, but
it was definitely the right choice for me. Our town is close to our house and
there’s plenty of off road exploring to be done quite locally. It’s a chunky
beast, but a small folding product to fit in the boot of my car wasn’t a
priority for this – my main, ‘walking’ pushchair. It had large size air filled
wheels, and I took it through town, off road, through mud, snow and sand, and
never had an issue with it coping. For times when I did want to take it in the
car, despite the size of it and the fact that I owned a VW Polo at the time, it
did fit. I had to remove the seat unit and the rear wheels, it was a weight to
lift so for the first few weeks after delivery it wouldn’t have been possible
(but I didn’t drive for 6 weeks afterwards anyway) but once the chassis was in
the wheels dropped in at the side and the seat unit laid over the top.
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| Maxi-Cosi Mura 2010 with Mura Carrycot Tango Red |
As a three wheel model, the
turning circle was small and neat, even though the Mura itself is a fair sized
chassis. I know a lot of people complain about three wheelers not seeming
stable, but I never once had an issue with the Mura – you just have to remember
that as a three wheeler you can’t drop it down forwards, which is common sense
really – when going up and down curbs, push down on the handlebar and spread
the weight over the two rear wheels, and it won’t tip. The Mura always felt
solid, good quality and it survived much – I used it with the pram body until J
was four months old, but as a long child he then needed to use the seat unit.
The pram body was suitable for use up to approx. 6 months, 10kg or when baby
can sit up, whichever comes first, but as I say J was very long from the start
and had to stop using both the pram body and the Moses basket at four months
old.
The shopping basket was a good
size, and I could fit two very large drinks bottles in there along with a bag
of shopping. I frequently went to the local shops and got a few bits each time,
though I wouldn’t have fancied trying to fit a weeks worth of shopping onto it
and carry the remainder, but again that wasn’t something I needed to do. I had my
car for going to the shops if I needed to, or else I’d order online.
Maxi-Cosi don’t recommend hanging
anything on the handlebar as the product hasn’t been tested / approved for use
with additional weight hanging on the chassis, but I must be honest and say I
did. I would never have hung a bag on it and let go of the handlebar, but I
would regularly hang the nappy bag over the handlebar and if I went shopping
the bags would end up in the shopping basket or tied to the handlebar.
The Mura seat unit is lie flat,
which means it is suitable from birth – my personal preference was to use a
carrycot for the first few months, but this isn’t a requirement – The first
time we took J out in the seat unit was the 1st Jan 2011. It was a
cold day and he wore a snowsuit as we walked around town alongside the river.
The sun canopy wasn’t great – it
wasn’t the easiest to open and you couldn’t do it one-handed, which was a pain.
After a few months the framework buckled and it was replaced; it wasn’t a
particularly deep sun canopy, and while it was great when the seat unit was
sitting upright, as soon as it was reclined it didn’t offer much protection and
I often felt it could have done with being larger, to shield the child more
from sun and wind when they were reclined (and so, more often than not, when
they were sleeping)
There was a bar across the back
of the seat unit which you lifted to unlock the seat for recline / sitting
upright. I found it quite stiff and loud – if J dropped off to sleep and I had
to drop the seat unit into a lying position the loud ‘clunk’ noise and the
jerking of the back of the seat as the stiff bar was moved normally woke him up
again.
To go with the seat unit I also
had the Mura Footmuff. It was a quite different design to other footmuffs – it
had legs, a wrap over top and a hood. Zips on the Footmuff opened up the sides
of the top if you wanted the child’s arms to be free, and the legs could be
unzipped to free their feet as they got older, allowing it to be used for
longer.
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| Maxi-Cosi Mura Footmuff 2010 Tango Red |
While the CabrioFix carseat can
also be used on the chassis as well this wasn’t something I did; if I was going
to the shops I’d take a smaller chassis as it would only be a quick journey and
if I was going somewhere for a walk I’d take the carrycot or seat unit because
I don’t like relying on the carseat too much for things other than car
journeys.
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| Maxi-Cosi CabrioFix 2010 Tango Red |
The raincover was a bit of a faff
to get right. In sudden quick downpours it could become the stuff of nightmares
but I became adept at doing it after a while (though others struggled through
lack of practise) It fitted well but had lots of Velcro ties to do up, which
made doing it slow process and more difficult in gusty weather as you just
couldn’t grab hold of it all quickly enough. Once in place it covered well, and
J never once managed to kick it off (despite his best efforts!)
I used the Mura regularly until J
started nursery, a few weeks after his third birthday. It was used maybe once a
week after that for long walks up until he was a
few weeks away from his fourth birthday. The tyres needed pumping up quite
often to keep the pSI correct and make sure it was as easy and light as
possible to push, but we never had to patch a puncture or change a tyre /
innertube.
When we stopped using the Mura I
did feel quite sad. Packing it away after cleaning it I noticed it was still in
really good condition, despite the years of heavy use. I really rate this
product and when I saw Maxi-Cosi had updated it with some improvements I knew I
had to get a Mura Plus for Baby …
More Coming Soon ...
Peace N Love
Mummy P x x x x
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