We had the same dilemma when looking at prams, and ended up buying the Strider...
I wanted a pram with pump up wheels that could take two bubs for when we expanded our family. Hubby was dead keen on the facing us option plus he is tall and wanted a high pram.
I compromised on the pump uo wheels because the strider seemed to meet so many of our other criteria, most importantly the facing us option.....
Although I have not owned the Valco, I actually think that would've been the pram for us.
The strider is okay, but these are the things that drive me crazy:
-when you fold it up with the seat on, it scrapes the hub thingo above the front wheel (we contacted Britax about this and they suggested that we fold it as per the brochure, but I don't think that it is that easy to fold it like that);
- The wheels are hard plastic and we have some really rough footpaths around here.... it really jolted the baby around and I found she would never sleep over certain routes, so I ended doing a lot of walking on the smoother back roads around here ;
- we recenlty left the strider folded up for a while (while I have been using a stroller), and when we used it last weekend, it seems that the way it was folded has put a pressure point on the wheel. The wheel now has a flat spot on that section and the pram has a noticeable "bump" when walking due to this
- the strider is one big unit, hard to lift, and hard to get around confined spaces, and takes up a lot of room in the boot (yay for the stationwagon)...... but I haven't owned another pram so maybe a lot of them are like this????
Hope this helps......