Veer Cruiser vs Wonderfold Stroller Wagon Comparison

The Veer Cruiser Stroller Wagon and the Wonderfold W series are both high-end, high-quality wagons, but differ widely in their strengths and weaknesses.

How They Compare

We researched and acquired the top 11 stroller wagons including the Wonderfold W4 Elite and W1 Original and Veer Cruiser. We put all of the wagons through 65 tests and measurements and scored them in five categories.

The Veer is exceptional at handling rough terrain, as a quick fold, stowing and loading in a vehicle and holding up over time.

Wonderfolds are well suited for playing in and on, hauling lots of gear and climbing in and out of the rear, zippered entrance.

On the flip side, Wonderfolds are not comparatively easy to fold or load, or go anywhere besides sidewalks and flat grassy areas.

Veer Cruisers aren’t great for playing in or napping on. Convenient accessories like canopies and storage baskets come at an additional price.

Veer Cruiser Video Review

Complaints About the Veer Cruiser and Our Response

Customer reviews of the Veer Cruiser are very positive but we researched all of the complaints in order to compare them to our own experience and test results.

This is a subset but you can see the complete list here: Veer Cruiser Stroller Wagon Review.

Criticism	Our Experience
Small footwell	The footwell is 15″ x 11″ x 4.5″ which is deeper than many but of course, not as large or deep as the Wonderfolds with hanging seats.
Veers to the side when pushing.	We found that the Veer doesn’t tend to go left or right in steady, controlled testing, but it does “veer” when people push it because the swivel wheels in the back make it sensitive to pressure differences on the handle.
Removing accessories adds time to folding and stowing.	True. Without the accessories it folds in a little over 10 seconds, and takes much longer when fully loaded. This is true of all the stroller wagons we tested.
Gets hot in the sun	Yes, sitting in direct sun, the gray plastic seats heat up quickly.
Snack tray and cup holder don’t keep things in place.	We found the snack tray to be and cup holders to be adequate in depth. It is true that snacks will slide all the way across, from side to side when the wagon is turning sharply.

Wonderfold W4 Elite Video Review

Complaints About the Wonderfold W4 Elite and Our Response

The Wonderfolds have their fair share of positive reviews and a few negative ones as well. Here is a partial list with notes about our experience.

Here is the full list of criticisms: Wonderfold W4 Elite Stroller Wagon Review.

Criticism	Our Experience
Feet bump on brake or axel while pushing	Several, but not all, of our testers reported their feet bumping the brake or axel bar consistently. The rear wheels are smaller in diameter compared to most wagons and the handle doesn’t extend to far. We believe this accounts for feet bumping.
Push bar not adjustable	The Wonderfolds we purchased have adjustable push handles, which is an important feature. Unfortunately the handles don’t extend far enough to avoid the feet-bumping problem.
Customer service unresponsive to emails	We sent a test email and received a very quick response from customer service.
Big and bulky folded	The luxury versions of the Wonderfold including the W4 Elite and Luxe are heavy and big when folded. The W4 Elite is 15.7 cu ft folded, which is larger than any other wagon we tested.
Pulls to the side when pushing	All wagons pull to some degree but the Wonderfolds performed very well in our straight line testing.

Test and Research Results

We scored the wagons in these categories:

• Parent Comfort and Usability
• Steering and Maneuverability
• Kid Comfort and Usability
• Folding and Transport
• Part and Material Quality

Multiple moms and dads pushed these wagons over different terrain with children of different ages and sizes. There is no single best stroller wagon but each of these do well for certain situations.

Parent Comfort and Usability

Here we evaluated storage, braking, cleaning, handles, setup, customer service, and more. Scores for parent comfort and usability.

Unboxing and Assembling

The Veer took 13 minutes to unbox and assemble which was one of the shortest times for any wagon.

Customer service responded to our email in an amazing 7 minutes.

The Wonderfold W1 Original was also fast to setup, but the W4 Elite took more time at 26 minutes.

Wonderfold customer service responded quickly in just over an hour.

Parent Cupholders

The Veer cup holders are very conveniently located just under the push handle.

Surprisingly, the Wonderfold wagons don’t come with parent cup holders.

Handles

The Veer Cruiser handle adjusts with a clamp from 38″ to 42″. The Wonderfold W4 is 34.5″ at its lowest position and 45.5″ at its highest. The usable range is much more limited than it sounds because the handle isn’t functional pointing straight up or straight down.

The Wonderfolds have foam rubber handles and zippered protective covering. The Veer has a comfortable rubber handle.

Car Seat Adapters

There is no car seat adapter available for Wonderfold wagons.

The Veer doesn’t come with an adapter but you can purchase one separately.

Storage

When it comes to storage, the higher-end Wonderfolds like the W4 and Luxe are hard to beat. Lower-end wagons like the W1 Original have very little.

The Veer doesn’t come with any extra storage out of the box, although you can buy a separate Veer foldable storage basket.

Storage ratings:

Note that the Veer storage rating above is without the separate purchase of the basket.

The thin zippered compartment of the W1 Original show side by side with the wide basket on the back of the W4 Elite.

In addition to the rear storage basket, the W4 has storage compartments in the front and also pockets that hang from each side of the wagon.

The zippered entrance at the back of the W4 Elite can be used to store bulky items underneath the seats.

Cleaning Rating

The Cruiser seats and seat backs are plastic and easily washable. The fabric on the sides and surface of the footwell clean up well too.

You can spot-clean the fabric on Wonderfold wagons. Crumb removal is more difficult on the Wonderfolds with seats because the crumbs get in the cracks and anything under the seats is challenging to reach.

Brake Effectiveness

We performed a “runaway” wagon test on each wagon, sending them down a hill weighted down with dog food. We then attempted to stop the wagons with the brake alone.

The Veer stopped quickly when we were able to push the pedal hard enough (difficult while walking fast). The W4 Elite slid and stuttered a bit before stopping.

While the Veer brake is intuitive but it requires a firm step to activate and a fairly good push of the button to deactivate.

Neither wagon had a brake that was easy on sandaled feet.

Brake effectiveness includes the ease of activating and deactivating and how quickly the wagon stops. Brake effectiveness ratings:

Steering and Maneuverability

Here is how the wagons performed in our steering, maneuverability and terrain testing. Steering and Maneuverability Scores:

Pushing and Turning

The Veer Cruiser has a learning curve because its swivel wheels are on the back, not the front. The big wheels up front enable it to climb over bumps more easily but the steering requires some initial practice, particularly indoors.

The Veer requires very little force to turn from a dead stop. The Wonderfold W4 Elite, requires a great deal of force to turn compared to most other wagons we tested.

Force to turn each wagon 90-degrees from a stop.

For context, the best wagons took between 13 and 22 lbs of force for this turn.

The Veer took takes very little force to turn and to get rolling straight from a stop.

The Wonderfold W4 took more pushing and turning force in our testing, probably due in part to its weight:

Terrain Performance

The Veer with its large diameter front wheels did great in our bump test and the Wonderfolds didn’t perform as well over roots, boards and sidewalk cracks. Bump ratings:

Grass: The Veer pushes easily over the grass and the Wonderfold does fine on flat grassy areas. Turning on the grass with a loaded Wonderfold is much more difficult than with the Veer.

Hills: The W1 Original and Veer cruiser were easy to push straight up grassy hills. The W4 Elite took lots of effort. The Veer maneuvered well turning on the hills and going perpendicular.

Sand: Neither wagon handles well on soft sand.

Wheel Sizes

Part of the better steering and maneuverability performance of the Veer is due to wheel size and configuration.

Although Wonderfolds are relatively large wagons, their wheel diameters are smaller than most other wagons. The Veer’s rear wheels are smaller but it leads with large 12″ wheels in the front.

Rear-wheel diameter:

Front-wheels:

The Wonderfold front wheels are 8″ in diameter and 1.9″ in width, making them similar in size to most other wagons, although the weight of the wagon warrants bigger wheels.

The W4 Luxe has larger front and rear wheels. It probably performs better than the Elite (we haven’t tested it yet) but the larger wheels put it more in line with other wagons, not ahead of them.

Folding and Transport

The less time and effort it takes to fold and load a wagon in the car, the more use it will get.

The Veer and W1 Original fold and stow easily, but this is the W4’s most challenging area. Folding and transport scores:

Folding Time

The Wonderfold canopies are not difficult to operate but add quite a bit to the time to fold and unfold.

The Veer Cruiser fold time includes taking off the snack tray but doesn’t include the canopy removal so this isn’t a fully apples-to-apples comparison.

Folded Size in Cubic Feet

As expected, the 2-passenger Veer and W1 Original are smaller when folded than the W4 Elite. Here is a comparison of the 4-passenger W4 Elite to the Anthem 4, 4-passenger wagon.

In the Trunk of a Car or Back of a Minivan

We can get the Veer in the trunk of our sedan. The wheels can be removed if you need more space with an easy button push.

The Wonderfold W4 Elite doesn’t fit in a trunk but can be wrestled into a van. Its easier if you lower the handle all of the way. In the clip below the rear handle wasn’t folded down.

Kid Comfort and Usability

We checked with kids and assessed seat comfort, getting in and out, harness comfort and more. Here are the total scores in Kid comfort and usability:

Seat Comfort

The W4 Elite and Luxe have hanging seats that are adjustable, reclinable and removable. They leave a deep footwell so that even taller children can sit comfortably. The reclining seats also make it possible to nap while seated.

The Veer Cruiser has shaped and ventilated seats with a 4.5″ deep footwell. They are comfortable but not padded and the footwell isn’t as deep as the W4 Elite.

The W1 Original has no separate seats, so kids must sit on the wagon floor with backs against the ends of the wagon. This is common for many wagons. While it isn’t as comfortable for seating, the flat surface lets kids move around while not buckled and sit with backs against the side.

Seat comfort ratings:

Harness Comfort

The Wonderfold harnesses are padded and the Veer’s are not. Harness comfort ratings:

We found the W1 harness to be challenging to buckle.

Snack Tray

The W4 Luxe includes a snack tray and the other Wonderfolds do not. Trays, cup holders and snack trays can be purchased separately.

Wagons that don’t come with snack trays like the Jeep, Keenz 7S and Wonderfold W1, W2, W4 Elite, tend to stay messier as more food crumbs end up in the floor of the wagons.

Inner Wagon Space

Although the W4 Elite is a 4-seater, it is only 1.5″ wider than the Veer Cruiser and not as long. The W4 accommodates 4 children by seating them higher and more upright. Its sides are 6″ higher than the Veer’s.

The low sides of the Veer make it easy for children to climb in by themselves.

The Wonderfold makes it possible for kids to enter by themselves through its rear, zippered door.

Canopy

The canopy action on the Wonderfold makes it possible to block most of the sun and it is easy to adjust.

The Veer canopy also provides partial sun coverage. If you don’t purchase canopies you’ll have to watch for the seats getting too hot in the sun.

Part and Material Quality

The Wonderfold and Veer wagons are very well made. Part and material quality scores:

Veer Cruiser Part Quality

The Veer looks and feels solid. It makes a satisfying, metallic clicking sound when I snap the sides into place.

Most of the material is aluminum and hard plastic so I have no concerns about its ongoing durability.

The firm push required on the brake pedal is my only design concern, but it is not a quality concern.

Wonderfold Part Quality

The Wonderfolds are also durable wagons. The critical moving parts like the handle mechanism and folding mechanism operate smoothly. The zippers and snaps function well. And the fabric is rugged enough to withstand play and cleaning.

While some customers have complained of stitching problems and wheels coming off, these are low frequency complaints and we haven’t experienced those problems.