Baby Jogger City Versa GT Review

These are the first photos taken of the production UK Baby Jogger City Versa GT, and were taken exclusively for Best Buggy, courtesy of Kooltrade, who are the UK Baby Jogger distributors.

The Baby Jogger City Versa is a fantastic pushchair with a reversible seat. Importantly, the Versa folds into a neat flat package with the seat left facing in either direction. The Baby Jogger City Versa has similarities with the Baby Jogger City Mini, and especially with the Baby Jogger City Select; but it also has characteristics of its own such as the rotating adjustable handlebar; a very unique; but one handed flat fold; and its own styling.

The Baby Jogger City Versa GT is essentially the same as the Versa but there are a few key differences:

• The biggest difference is that the Versa GT has the added benefit of small 8” GT rubber, foam filled wheels. These are the same as the City Mini GT wheels (please note that the wheels will not interchange).
• The Versa GT will have a black matte chassis, whereas the Versa has a gun metal grey chassis.
• The Versa GT also has its own GT logos on the side and on the seat footwell.

We used to have a Baby Jogger City Select which we absolutely loved. Whilst we appreciate the Versa is a new product for Baby Jogger, for us, using the Versa brought back a lovely feeling of familiarity. The handbrake; the HUGE, HUGE shopping basket; the rubber covered handlebar; the easy lift off and turning round of the seat unit; the lever recline at the rear of the seat; the easy to adjust and extending footrest. These are all some of the very best bits of the City Select which have translated brilliantly onto the Versa and Versa GT, but in a neater single pushchair package.

We were given the opportunity to see the Versa GT with the Versa carrycot on the chassis. The Versa GT looks really very smart in pram mode especially against the black GT chassis. The carrycot was easy to put on, and to lift off. It has two carrying straps which hold together to keep them neat. The carrycot comes with a comfy mattress. We like the green indicator which shows clearly that the carrycot is fixed firmly to the chassis. The carrycot has a fantastic tri-fold hood which comes further forwards than most carrycot hoods do, thus it affords good shelter for a baby in summer or winter.

The carrycot is the same size as the Baby Jogger Compact Plus carrycot.  The carrycot is needed for a young baby, as the seat unit is only suitable for a baby over 6 months. We laid our 25 month old in the carrycot, and although yes he filled it, he still had room to move, which showed us that the carrycot is a generous size. The Versa also takes a Maxi Cosi Car seat using the same car seat adaptors as the Baby Jogger City Select. We understand that there is a different GT bumper bar and snack tray.

The Versa and Versa GT seat unit is large and roomy. The seat measurements we took were excellent with a 57cm high seat. We love that footrest can be extended by extra 3.5cms. For an older child, such as our 3 year 10 month old girl (103cms tall, on the 91st centile) , the footrest can be moved backwards so that it is out of the way, leaving the child able to put their feet on the front edge of the chassis (see photos). The boy in our photos is 25 months old (83.5cms tall, on the 9th centile).

We absolutely love the new seat harness adjustment system. It made switching the harness size between the two children an absolute breeze. We could easily slide the harness up or down to extend it. There is a new clips also for moving the harness up the different height settings. All round these adjustments have massively improved the Baby Jogger harness from the City Select which we had.

Best of all the Versa and Versa GT fold with the seat on, facing in either direction into a lovely neat compact flat fold. There are very few pushchairs currently on the market that you can fold parent facing into a compact folded package. So this is brilliant to see! I for one am fed up of having to turn a parent facing seat unit round in order just to fold in one piece – you may as well have a 2 piece fold. So the Versa is a breath of fresh air.

The fold itself is pretty impressive. We have found it is done most easily by standing at one side. Simply squeeze together the two levers at the top rear of the Versa seat  unit – there is a button either side of the recline button. This allows the seat unit to fold in half on top of itself – so the fabric inside stays clean. Then between the rear wheels is a pull handle (near the red pieces of webbing in the photos). Simply bend down and grab that. Pull firmly and the pushchair folds down in your hand.

BUT best of all, this two stage fold, can be done easily with one hand – ONE HAND! This means that if you use public transport, or need to fold a pushchair to got up steps to your house, your child can be lifted out of the pushchair seat, tucked under your arm and you can then easily, without having to bend far, fold the Versa so that it ends up in your hand ready to go!

The Versa also has a “memory” fold, so that when you reopen the pushchair after being folded, the Versa will “remember” the last position that the seat was placed in. Thus the seat will be in the same position ready to go!

The seat unit can be taken off and folded separately if required. On the rear of the seat unit is a storage strap to keep the seat together neatly when folded.

We absolutely love the fold of the Versa and the Versa GT.

We also love that the bar at the rear of the Versa, in keeping with the rest of the 2012 Baby Jogger range, has been swooped low to give easy access to the huge basket. The bag photographed in the basket is a Pacapod toy pod. It just gives an idea of how large the basket is. The orange webbing straps are safety straps which popper onto the chassis – we love how these are held neatly behind loops to keep them out of the way of the fold handle. The Versa also has the fabulous net storage pocket on the rear of the seat as well!! Brilliant! We love storage here at Best Buggy, and the Versa has to be one of the best pushchairs for basket and storage space!

We also absolutely love that the Versa hood has magnetic catches on the two peekaboo windows! Hurray!! No ripping velcro to peek on a sleeping baby!

The Versa GT is a little heavier than the regular Versa. It also costs a little more too. But the no puncture GT wheels just add that little extra to the ride of the Versa GT. There is suspension on the front wheels of the Versa GT. During the photoshoot we got opportunity to find out how easy the Versa GT was to use and to manoeuvre. We were able to zip one handed around the obstacles in the showroom brilliantly. I loved how stable the Versa GT was on its 4 GT wheels. We can’t wait to get the Versa GT out of the showroom, and into every day life, and on some rougher terrain.

We also tried the Baby Jogger Glider Board on the Versa GT. It fitted really easily and neatly, and we believe the Versa will fold with the Glider board in situ. Our tall 3 year old was unable to fit between the seat and the handlebar, but we have seen a photo of a younger child who could fit in the gap easily. It seems to be easier for a child to stand on the glider board, on the seat side of the handlebar, when the seat unit is parent facing.

All round, we are loving the Versa GT. It looks great, and the functionality and design is superb. We can not wait for the Versa and the Versa GT to arrive in the UK.

 

NOTES:

The photos with the 3 pushchairs – 2 black and 1 red are the Baby Jogger City Mini (left), the Versa GT (middle) and the City Select (right). In this photo, the City Select has its footrest fully extended – the Versa does not.

The two seat units on the floor are the City Select (left with the silver frame) and the Versa (right with the black frame). Both footrests are now fully extended.

The photos of the 3 black pushchairs show the pre-production Versa side by side on the left, with the production model Versa GT in the middle.

Many thanks to Kooltrade and to Katie, for allowing us to photograph the Baby Jogger City Versa GT.