Cosatto Giggle 2 Review by Best Buggy

The Cosatto Giggle is one of the most striking and recognisable pushchairs on the market. The bold colours and prints from Cosatto make their products stand out from the crowd. I love the whole ethos and vibe that comes from Cosatto – whether it is their funky website or adverts or the friendly print on the box! You instantly feel like part of the friendly Cosatto family. These warm, fuzzy feelings continue as you open the box.

First Impressions

Opening the Cosatto Giggle 2 box, quite frankly was amazing! It was like opening an Aladdin’s cave. Out of the box came the pushchair chassis, the carrycot, the seat unit, a raincover, footmuff and changing bag with a mat and clear zipped pouch. There was also a funky Cosatto keyring. For an RRP of £430 you certainly get value for money.

We have the colourful and funky Pixelate design. We realise this will not be to everyone’s taste, but we are sure there is a Giggle 2 design to suit everyone.

The Giggle 2 required some unwrapping and assembly before we could begin, but this was intuiative and did not take long. The chassis opens easily. The wheels all popped on, and the seat unit dropped neatly into position on top. What amazed us, was how light the Giggle 2 was for such a big pushchair.

The Cosatto Giggle 2 comes with both the carrycot and the pushchair seat. The carrycot should be used from birth to a maximum of 9kgs. A baby can be transferred to the pushchair seat from 6 months of age.

Carrycot

The carrycot needs erecting before use. Remove the liner / mattress from the base, and slide the bars using the straps until the bars click into place. This gives a solid base to the carrycot. Then replace the liner. There is a carrying handle on the carrycot, and another bar forms the bumper bar for the pushchair. It is worth noting that there is a zip off protective cover on the pushchair bumper bar, which can be moved onto the carrycot handle.

We love the contrasting fabric inside the carrycot. However, the fabric is quite stiff, more like a soft vinyl than material. It would be easy to wipe clean, however it isn’t the softest material we have seen in a carrycot. The carrycot has a zip off apron, and a removable UPF50+ hood. There is no peekaboo window in either the carrycot or pushchair hoods. The carrycot can be used for occasional overnight sleeping. The carrycot is suitable for a baby up to 9kgs or approximately 6 months old.

The carrycot is easy to manoeuvre into position and then to drop onto the chassis. To remove the carrycot involves releasing the carrycot from the side arms by pressing in the large yellow buttons, and then pulling the carrycot free of the chassis.

Child Comfort, Seating Positions and Harness

The seat is framed and the connecting arms slot very easily onto the chassis sockets. There is only one pair of function buttons for the seat unit – these are is situated in the centre of the seat / chassis, one on each side. On our pushchair this round button is colour coded, brilliant yellow to match the funky yellow chassis. We had no problem releasing the seat unit by squeezing the yellow buttons in. The seat could then be turned round and it drops easily back into position on the chassis. The seat unit is so light at just 4kgs, that it has been no trouble to do this multiple times for our photoshoot.

The seat unit has four recline positions which is excellent – most typical pushchairs have 3 reclines. The recline positions include a very upright position, and a lie flat position. The recline is accessed via the same yellow circular buttons which remove the seat. These need pressing in whilst you nudge the seat around with your other thumb and fingers, or a  forearm.

One of the biggest surprises was how huge the seat is. Look at the photos of Master BB above – there’s miles of space above his head, and he is well past the age where a typical child would be using this pushchair (Aged 4 and 100cms tall). He also has plenty of room for his legs and feet.  There is no doubt that this pushchair will outlast any child, size wise.

The seat is made from a thick cotton type material, whilst the hood is peachy soft inside. We love how the hood is lined inside, with a matching, but contrasting fabric. All round, the designers of the Giggle have done a great job!

The harness is a generous size. There are three harness height settings. In theory these should be simple to do – simply put the harness through the holes via a zip at the rear of the seat. However, we found this tricky because the plastic ends of the harness were too large for the holes, so eventually we gave up. A small point, but very frustrating, and one which could lead to a child’s safety being compromised.

The harness buckle is one we have seen now on several pushchairs, and we are not fans. There are sharp points at the rear of the buckle which can dig into a child’s tummy, and I cut my finger on a similar buckle in the past. We also do not like the way the harness falls apart into five pieces – five pieces is hard work when you are trying to put a wriggly child into the seat. The top part of the harness buckle is fiddly to get on correctly – it is a tiny sliding piece which fits into a small hole! At one point we accidentially put the top piece of the buckle on back to front and inserted it into the buckle. It then took some force to remove it. However, it is a very easy mistake to make because you have to take time to check the straps aren’t twisted and that you are holding the sliding piece the correct way around. If we could change any single item on the Giggle 2, it would be the harness.

The harness pads were a good size. They are fleece backed which makes them soft against the child’s skin. However they do slide off easily if the harness breaks into 5 pieces.

We loved the swing away bumper bar which was also handy for lifting, turning round and carrying the seat unit. As mentioned there is a zip on bumper bar cover which can be transferred between the carrycot and pushchair seat unit. The zip on cover will protect the bumper bar from getting dirty from sticky hands or when storing the Giggle 2.

The hood is a good size, but it is not huge. It is however high which gives plenty of head room for an older child. We like the thick, lined fabric. The hood has an UPF50+ rating which is good to know. There are a couple of tiny loops on the front edge of the hood for attaching toys. We did find that the hood pinged off a few times especially when folding / carrying.

Storage

The Cosatto Giggle 2 has an unusual shaped basket. It looks small at first glance, but it was easy to slide the enclosed Cosatto changing bag, and my medium size handbag through the sides. We could get both in the basket if we packed it correctly. However, it is not the biggest or easiest basket ever. Items are unlikely to fall out thanks to the high mesh at the front and back.

There is are two handy mesh pockets on the rear of the seat – great for little bits and pieces, especially keys, phones and a purse!

The changing bag comes in the box as part of the package. We struggled to hang the bag over the handlebar, as the straps just slid down. It does fit in the basket, or is comfortable to wear over your shoulder, or across your body.

Handlebars, Handling, Wheels and Brake

The handlebar is covered in fairly dense foam – it does squash a little, so that it is comfortable to hold. However, our foam is starting to split which is not very good after only a few months use. There are an amazing eight handle positions from very low to high. There should be a handle position to suit everyone although the highest handle heights do bring you nearer the pushchair, which may not be an advantage if you have a long stride to match your long legs!

The Cosatto Giggle 2 handles superbly. We have been extremely surprised. Even with 4 year old Master BB on board, the Giggle 2 has been very light to push and super easy to manoouvre. A sign of a good pushchair is when you don’t know you are pushing it – and that has been true of the Giggle 2. It has been a pleasure to live with over the last few months.

This is even more unexpected when you consider that the Giggle 2 is a three wheel pushchair – we usually prefer four wheels. There are two larger 9″ rear wheels and a double smaller, lockable / swivel 6.5″ wheel at the front. The wheels are soft touch plastic wheels. This means that there is a little give in them to ease out the lumps and bumps on the pathway. There is good all round suspension, particularly at the rear, which will have contributed to the Giggle 2 being a pleasure to push. However, the Giggle 2 is an urban pushchair. We have taken The Giggle 2 across mown grass and it has been no problem, however we would not recommend the Giggle 2 if you plan to head any more off road than a nearby park. Our wheels were black, but just be aware that the white Giggle 2 wheels will probably be filthy in minutes.

There is a central footbrake. This is a ‘rocker’ brake – so that you press down on the front part to apply the brake, and then press down on the back part to release the brake. Good news for anyone who likes wearing open toes shoes! The brake has been decisive – you know when it has been applied and it holds the Giggle 2 well.

We are not particularly impressed by having an advertising slogan down the side of the pushchair. We can understand having the brand name, but we have been tempted more than once to try to remove the ‘great british design’ that runs down each side of the chassis.

Fold

The Cosatto Giggle 2 is very easy to fold. On the inside of each side of the handlebar, below the handlebar adjust buttons, are black abutments. There is one on the left, and one on the right. Above one on the right there is a black button. Press in the the button on the right hand side, and then with a hand on each side, slide the two abutments towards you. The chassis ‘breaks’ and folds smoothly flat towards the floor. There is an autolock which may need a push down on the chassis to engage. Folding the handle in will give a neater fold. However, the fold is very long for a single pushchair. The folded length is something you must check before buying. It is possible to fold the handle underneath the Giggle to make it freestand which is very useful, as the Giggle 2  takes up a lot of space if it is laid on the floor.

The pushchair can be folded with the seat forward facing, or the seat can be removed before folding.
We did manage to partially fold the Giggle with the seat parent facing, and with the carrycot on. However, this is not recommended in the instructions, and we could not get the chassis flat enough to engage the fold lock, thus we do not advise trying this. We have included photos in our photoset to show how the pushchair looks so that you don’t need to try it!

Opening the Giggle 2 is simple. Undo the fold lock and flick the chassis open until the Giggle is upright and locks into place.

Accessories

The Cosatto Giggle 2 comes with several accessories. First there is the changing bag as mentioned above. The bag is has a big pocket on the outside, and small zippered one inside along with plenty of space for all your baby essentials. There is also a matching wipe clean changing mat and a wet bag. We like the funky Cosatto zip pull, and the handy key clip with a matching keyring. There is a shoulder strap which reminds me of seat belt webbing, but softer. We liked that the bag did not look too much like a changing bag, and thus it has been really handy to carry iPads, picnics, and other items in. It has been a really funky bag to have!

The Giggle 2 also comes with clear raincovers for the carrycot and pushchair seat, which are uniquely edged with the matching fabric. This is a really lovely touch. It is the attention to detail which really makes the Cosatto Giggle stand out amongst its competitors.

The Giggle also comes with a matching footmuff which has holes for the harness to thread through. This is lined with snuggly black fleece. The top of the footmuff can be removed to leave a liner to protect the seat in summer. We love that Cosatto have included a footmuff – to be honest, it would have been a nightmare to find a matching one otherwise!! The footmuff finishes the pushchair off perfectly and looks great. There is a loop at both the back and the front of the top of the footmuff for the bumper bar to be threaded through. This is really useful for keeping the footmuff in position.

Car seat adaptors are also enclosed which allow the Cosatto Hold Group 0+ Car Seat to be attached to the chassis to form a useful travel system. The Hold car seat would cost an additional £125-£145 depending on the design. There is an ISOfix base available for the car seat if required at a cost of £130.

At this point we have need to mention that we are aware of the issues with the Giggle 1. However, Cosatto are trying very hard to get the message across that the problems of the Giggle 1 have been resolved and that these are new pushchairs. We have had the Giggle 2 now for a number of months, and even with a heavier child on board, we have had no issues to date. We hope that this problem free travel will continue. However, Cosatto do give an amazing four year guarantee on the Giggle 2 (if you register within 28 days of purchase), which would give peace of mind.

In Conclusion

There is no doubt that you get a lot for your money with the Cosatto Giggle. Apart from purchasing a car seat, you have none of the extras to buy which other companies add onto the basic cost – you get the carrycot, the changing bag, the raincover, car seat adaptors and the footmuff / liner. Our main negatives are the fold size and the harness. Based on sheer value for money, lovely push, and the quality which we can see and feel, we have no hesitation in giving the Cosatto Giggle 2, a very good 4 and a half gold star Best Buggy rating.
Mr BB LOVES the Giggle 2 and he rarely passes an opinion on pushchairs, so that is quite an accolade in itself!

With many thanks to Cosatto for their help with this review.