City Select

Here’s my take: 1) Go to a fancy baby store (they have botique-y ones where I’m located) so you can try stuff out in person. 2) Tell the very helpful sales people that you “have to think about it” and will be back. 3) Look up the stroller on FB marketplace and buy it there instead. (I have a City Select that retails for $800. I got it for $100 on FBM, near new condition, with extra accessories)

Your wife is right about needing big wheels and a click in infant seat. I’d encourage you to buy the stroller used to hit your budget. The Vista is the most popular but the baby jogger City Select might suit your needs at a lower price point.

It's going to depend so much on how and where you plan to use the stroller, and whether you want something that can eventually be used for a second baby. I don't drive and we knew we wanted 2 kids, so I needed strollers that really worked well and had okay storage capacity. I went through a few different strollers to accommodate different activities and different life stages. All of them were used in conjunction with babywearing because sometimes in the city a stroller just doesn't work at all. I got a City Select first because I wanted something I could convert when we had a second, and the versatility was nice, but all the front to back strollers are so unwieldy to push. Having a tiny baby facing me (preferably not in a car seat) was important to me, and it was a good choice for that, but once both kids were bigger I sold it. I also had a not-quite-umbrella stroller, the Zoe that isn't the super tiny travel size, for those days I wanted to keep it light and only needed it for one kid, but they're really only well suited to smooth floors, like museums, so I only used it if I really needed something small and easy to fold. My second set of strollers, once I knew we weren't gonna have anymore newborns, were a City Mini GT and a Mountain Buggy Duet. The GT is a really solid choice as long as your kid is old enough that you feel comfortable not having eyes on them at all times. Sturdy, handles well, basket is not amazing but it's good enough, folds quickly, and they're popular enough that it's easy to find one used - I think mine was $20 on craigslist and all I had to do was stuff a little piece of cardboard into a spot where the front wheel liked to stick. The Mountain Buggy Duet is relatively unknown but my absolute favorite for when I needed both kids in a stroller. Rugged as hell, smooth to push even with one hand, amazingly shockingly astoundingly narrow for a side by side - I think there's less than an inch difference between it and the City Select single. You can fit this thing on a CTA bus without folding it or blocking the aisle (I did avoid crowded buses with strollers but I surprised a lot of people when they saw it squeeze in). You can take one seat off and attach a shopping basket if you've got one in preschool all day and the other at home with you running errands then put the second seat back in for a weekend zoo trip. It was a pain to fold but I rarely needed to fold it. It's not the best stroller for big kids since it's so narrow, but my oldest was a shrimpy toddler. God, I miss that stroller. If I knew then what I know now I probably would have gotten it and just used it with the basket when my first was born. I also borrowed a Bob double to get the kids to and from school when we were avoiding the bus during covid and it snowed and snowed and snowed and snowed one winter. It did well in the snow but it's so so big, I couldn't even get it in my garage without folding it. If you plan to do a lot of trail walking off road kinds of stuff, a single Bob would be a great choice once baby is big enough, but I wouldn't bother for just city walking.

Yes to the good stroller! I got. City select thinking I would like the single to double on marketplace but didn’t realize how hard it would be to push once I had two kids in it. I still have it but only use it for one and bought a double bob and then a single bob.

I bought a double before kids. It worked with my car seat. Then a regular seat. Then added the second. I had the space to store the second away until we needed it. I bought the baby jogger city select used on craigslist.

My kids are older so I don't know the new brands as much. I had a baby jogger city select. It could hold infant seat/regular seat or 2 seats. I used it for 8 years before giving it to a neighbor. I loved the bigger tires. I borrowed a different stroller and I hated how it handled.

I loved my city select double jogger. It could hold one or two seats, forwards or backwards.