Stroller musings

The perfect stroller: an enigma. I am constantly in search of this mysterious item . . .and forever swiveling my head to take mental notes about strollers I see everywhere. I. will. find. the. perfect. stroller. Or maybe not.
I recently started looking for a new stroller because we were headed to Germany and I wanted something really comfy for Miles to snooze in while we walked the cobblestone streets of the wee villages we had planned on visiting (see previous post). So I started out by cruising the web and looking at opinion sites. I initially used epinions which I really like, but then also discovered Baby Ga-Ga which has great reviews and lots of detailed information. So, as you may already know, I decided to buy the Bumbleride Flyer stroller and was sooo excited to get this beauty in the mail and try it out. We took our beautful bamboo dream ride out to the cliffs in Santa Cruz for it maiden voyage and . ..bummer! The front wheels of this stroller wobbled and gyrated to such a degree that it made it very hard to use. We were so disappointed! We kept trying different things to make the wheels stay put and stop wobbling (even on the smoothest surfaces), but no luck. It happened every time. So I figured that I must have been sent a faulty stroller - or more likely, it was damaged in shipping. N was convinced that the chassi was not aligned squarely.
So I called the company I bought it from - TinyRide and they were SO nice about it. They offered to ship me out a new one immediately, no questions asked and were very apologetic about the whole thing. Since I was leaving for Germany in a few days, they even offered to overnight the replacement - amazing customer service! We had the stroller shipped to my husband's parent's house because there wasn't time to have it delivered to our house before we had to leave for the airport. So when we arrived in the morning, ready to leave for the airport I opened up the box, quickly put the stroller together and took my daughter for a quick spin up the block to try it out. Dang! Same problem - the front wheels wiggle and wobble all over the place. So I sadly have to report that there is some inheirent design flaw with the BumbleRide Flyer stroller - ouch. So my mother in law kindly packed the sucker back up for me and TinyRide had UPS come get it. Luckily I had bought a cheap-o umbrella stroller as a backup for the trip in case my beloved new stroller didn't work. Hmmph.
The stroller we took was fine - but not nearly the bed I was hoping for Miles and the little wheels were no match for the bumpy cobblestone streets we encountered everywhere. And every parent there had an amazing stroller! They were all comfy, bed-like masterpieces that all the happy little German babies ambled by in while our poor little munchkin barely fit into his. I was obsessed while there and I think my husband thinks I'm certifiable. I even went to a department store there to check out what they had - but the beauties were all very expensive and what with the weak dollar, I figured it didn't make sense to buy it there, so I passed.
So the search continues! I am once again, looking, swiveling my head and scanning webpages trying to find that perfect combo of features. Any ideas would be welcome!!