Bugaboo Fox 5 review: is the all-terrain Bugaboo worth it?

The Bugaboo Fox 5 lands at around £1,115 for the carrycot and seat, though you will often find it nearer £700 to £825 in a sale. And the question every parent ends up asking is simple: is an all-terrain Bugaboo worth two or three times what a competent supermarket travel system costs? On the Fox 5, more often than not, it holds up. Here is where the money actually goes, and where it does not.

8.7/10Best for birth to four years

Bugaboo · all-terrain flagship

Bugaboo Fox 5

One well-made pram that does the whole job from newborn to around four (up to 22kg), folds small enough to live with, rolls smoothly over rough ground and holds its value when you are done.

£1,115often £700 to £825 in a sale

Check price at Bugaboo

Bugaboo more or less invented the modern modular pushchair, and the Fox is its full-size, all-terrain flagship. It is the model the brand’s reputation for lasting through more than one child rests on, so it is the one worth interrogating properly.

What you are actually buying

At its core the Fox 5 is one pram that covers the whole journey, from newborn to around four years, up to 22kg. The carrycot and the reversible seat both run off the same chassis, so unlike a coach-built pram you are not buying a separate newborn cot, and unlike a cheap travel system you are not replacing the whole thing at six months. That one thing is most of the reason the price holds up.

The build, in real terms

• Light for the class, 10.4 to 12.2kg depending on setup, which makes it one of the lighter all-terrain prams rather than a tank.
• Proper wheels and suspension, large puncture-proof tyres that soak up gravel, kerbs and cobbles.
• One-hand fold that stands on its own, plus a compact two-piece fold of 89 x 53 x 34cm that drops into most car boots.
• Reversible seat with three recline positions, extendable by 10cm as the child grows.
• A 10kg underseat basket with hidden pockets, which sounds minor until you do a weekly shop with a pram.
• Four-year warranty and a 100-day trial, longer than most rivals put on the table.

Materials, and the green bit

The Fox 5 is built partly from bio-based materials, and Bugaboo says this cuts the pram’s carbon footprint by around 20% against older models. The Renew version goes further with a dual-sided breathable mattress. The point that matters for buyers is not the carbon line, it is that the fabrics are genuinely hard-wearing, the kind that survive a second child and still look right.

What the Fox 5 is not

It does not convert to a double, so twins or a quick second baby mean looking at the Bugaboo Donkey instead. To run it as a travel system with most car seats you buy adapters separately, though the Bugaboo Turtle seat clips straight onto the frame. And it is a wide pram, brilliant on a park path and less so squeezing down a packed bus aisle. Buy it for the school run, the park and the weekly walk and it shines. Buy it to nip round a tight city supermarket and you may find it big. For travel and the tightest spaces, that is a different buggy: see our Bugaboo Butterfly 2 review.

Does it hold its value?

This is where the premium starts to make sense. Bugaboo has a reputation for holding its value on the used market. Resale listings consistently show a clean, complete Fox 5 a couple of years old holding a healthy share of its price, popular colours especially, and they tend to go quickly. Factor in that one Fox 5 covers the entire newborn-to-four journey, then a second or third child or a resale at the end, and the true yearly cost drops well below what the sticker suggests. Against two cheaper travel systems bought and binned across the same years, the expensive pram quietly becomes the sensible one.

The verdict

The Fox 5 is not the cheapest all-terrain pram, and it does not pretend to be. What it offers is a single, well-made pram that does the whole job from birth to four, folds small enough to live with, rolls smoothly over rough ground and holds its value when you are done. For most families who want one good pushchair rather than two mediocre ones, the case is stronger than for most.

Score: 8.7/10. How we score.

Where to buy

• Bugaboo (direct), full colour range and the 100-day trial.
• John Lewis, frequent sale events and the usual retailer aftercare.
• Independent nursery specialists, for a proper in-person push before you commit.
• Nearly-new (used), strong savings on a pram that holds up; check the wheels, the fold mechanism and the fabric.

See at Bugaboo