We Tried It: The Uppababy Vista V3 Is the Three-Row SUV of the Stroller World
The supersized Vista V3 stroller has incredible features—but a few downsides, too
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Looking for the Escalade of strollers? Consider the new Uppababy Vista V3. Released in fall 2024, this large-and-in-charge stroller has a multitude of impressive features, but the weight and size might be a big drawback for some families.
One of the biggest changes in the Vista V3 from the previous version, the Vista V2, is its removable stroller seat lining, which could be a plus for families in warmer climates. During a surprise October heat wave, I was particularly grateful for this feature: Just snap out the stroller seat’s thick cushioned lining to reveal the vented seatback beneath.
The Uppababy Vista is also known for its smooth ride, thanks to large wheels that roll easily over most cracks in the sidewalk. The huge canopy is the best canopy I’ve ever used on a stroller; it’s big enough to almost completely shelter my child from inclement weather or intense sun.
But the downside of the Vista V3 is that this stroller is just . . . big. Everything about the Vista, in fact, feels super-sized. If for you bigger is better, this may be a plus. I myself am on the petite side, and I found the size of the frame to be bulky. I also live in a small urban house where storage is an issue. The Vista takes up most of the free space by the door, so it’s difficult to navigate around it.
The Vista V3 Has a Ginormous Basket
Going grocery shopping? Bring the Vista. I can easily fit an entire case of seltzer in this baby, plus a family pack of bone-in chicken thighs, several boxes of Grape-Nuts Flakes cereal, and a bag of onions. It has a 30-pound capacity and enough room for another toddler (this is a joke, please do not put your child in the basket).
It is, to be frank, more room than I need most days, but the ability to buy all that seltzer is definitely a plus. Large families that do bigger grocery trips might particularly benefit. I’m a big fan of using your stroller basket as a grocery shopping apparatus even if you’re just schlepping them around the store and across a parking lot; it’s a lot easier to toss your stuff into a stroller basket with your kid safely secured in the stroller than trying to walk your toddler across a parking lot, wrestle them into the shopping cart seat, and hope they actually stay there.
The stroller has an adjustable footrest, so if your child is facing toward the parent and the footrest is angled down, the basket can be a bit difficult to access from that side. And with two seats on the stroller, that footrest needs to be angled up to access the basket because it won’t be possible from the front.
Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports
The Vista V3’s Canopy Is Huge and Well Designed
As much as I love my Nuna TRVL LX and the Nuna Swiv, their canopies have a common flaw: The peekaboo flap doesn’t stay open well, making it a bit difficult to ensure my child is protected from the sun when he’s forward-facing. Not so with the Vista V3. Its peekaboo flap folds open and stays that way until you fold it back. There’s an additional vent in a zipped-off portion of the canopy, so you can see your front-facing baby whether or not the canopy is fully extended.
Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports
Did I mention the size? This canopy is gigantic. It can extend so far over the toddler seat that only your kiddo’s ankles and feet will be visible. On a very sunny day, this is a massive plus; I don’t want my pale baby getting sun damage, and I know some babies who become rageful when the sun gets in their eyes, like miniature vampires thrust into daylight for the first time. The Vista V3 canopy is your little vampire’s best friend.
The Vista V3’s Hefty Toddler Seat Is All-Weather Ready
In October while I was testing this stroller, the Northeast was hit with almost a week of 80-degree temperatures. I removed the thick, padded seat insert so that my son’s head and back could rest against a cool vented fabric stroller back, which allowed for more airflow. As temperatures continue to rise and summers—and apparently even autumns—get hotter, I hope to see more stroller brands add cooling elements like vents (and large, vented canopies) to help keep babies cool while on the go.
The Vista V3’s Double Configuration Leaves Something to Be Desired
If you have two kids and live in a major city, the double stroller is a necessary evil if you’re on the move with a baby and a toddler. This is where the Vista V3’s size became a sticking point for me in particular—while the Vista for one baby felt oversized and unwieldy in my city environment, the Vista’s double configuration was unmanageable.
Converting the Vista V3 from single to double is the easy part: Snap the second seat, which Uppababy calls the RumbleSeat, onto the stroller frame. The RumbleSeat comes with a set of adapters that attach to the front of the stroller, and allow you to position the RumbleSeat to the front and below the first, larger toddler seat. The Vista and RumbleSeat have a limited number of positions unless you buy an additional pair of adapters. I did not have these “upper adapters,” as Uppababy calls them, and so the toddler seat and RumbleSeat were somewhat squished together on the stroller frame.
Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports
I enlisted a friend and her baby to help me evaluate the Vista V3 in its double form. With the squished-together seats, my son was free to kick the seat below, though thankfully my friend’s easygoing baby didn’t seem to mind. I can imagine this being problematic with siblings, though, so parents or caregivers of siblings may want to consider the upper adapters so that children can be spaced a bit farther apart on the stroller frame.
You might want to start working out before buying a double stroller because navigating this stroller with two babies in it was difficult. The Vista V3, on its own and without a child in it, weighs nearly 28 pounds; with the RumbleSeat (6.8 pounds) and two 20-pound children, you’re looking at a nearly 75-pound haul. Going over sidewalk bumps wasn’t easy, and I had to have my friend lift the front of the stroller while I pushed the back to get up and over my city’s numerous badly installed curb cuts. Maneuvering around corners was hard as well because the Vista wasn’t able to take close turns; several times I nearly pitched the stroller off the sidewalk and into the curb. But as difficult as it was to handle, our lab testers still found that it has better maneuverability than several other single-to-double strollers, including the Mockingbird 2.0.
Double strollers aren’t easy. There’s no way around it. They’re big, they’re heavy, they’re going to be hard to manage. That all goes for the Vista V3, too. (See our picks for the best double strollers based on CR’s lab tests.)
Photo: Consumer Reports Photo: Consumer Reports
Where’s the Suspension?
Remember those big wheels? They’re great—assuming the stroller is in single mode—for rolling up and over large cracks in the sidewalk where a stroller with smaller wheels may struggle. But even with the extra-large wheels, the stroller feels rattly, almost rickety, when rolling over an unfinished road, cobblestones, or even a textured sidewalk surface. Though not to the point of the GB Pockit+ All-Terrain stroller, the Vista V3 doesn’t manage uneven surfaces spectacularly well.
Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports Photo: Angela Lashbrook/Consumer Reports
The Takeaway: The Vista V3 Is the Big Luxury SUV of Strollers
The Uppababy Vista and the small army of Uppababy strollers are justly popular, with thoughtful features and carefully crafted components for the luxury price tag. The Vista V3 retails for about $900, with additional components that convert the stroller from single to double mode tacking on several hundreds more dollars. It doesn’t come with a bassinet, which you can buy for $199.
Here’s the thing. When buying a single-to-double, you have to temper your expectations. By nature of their size, they’re going to be a bit of a pain—there’s no way around it. The Uppababy Vista V3 does well given the circumstances of its design, but that doesn’t make it a cinch to use. So if you need a single-to-double, the Vista V3 is a pretty good option. But like so many aspects of having two (or more) kids instead of one, there are some things you’re going to need to acclimate to. And having a slim, lightweight, compact stroller for both kiddos is one of them.
If you don’t have multiple kids or even a plan for them, a smaller stroller might be a more practical choice.
See how CR’s testers rated double and single-to-double strollers, including the Mockingbird 2.0, the Bugaboo Kangaroo, and the Baby Jogger City Tour.
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