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Doona, the brand most famous for the revolutionary car seat and stroller combo, has another trick up its sleeve.
If you’re looking for the best trike possible for your little one, it’s likely that you stumbled upon the Doona brand at some point. Doona is most famous for creating the popular car seat/stroller combination that can be seen anywhere parents and small children are. Doona also makes what is probably the most popular and desirable trike on the market. The Liki Trike S3 and S5.
Which one is better? What’s the difference? Let’s review the most important features and see what the biggest differences are: from quality, price, colors to everything else. Is the more expensive Liki S5 worth getting over the S3?
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The Doona Liki Trike currently comes in two main trim levels, the S3 and S5. There is also an even more premium Midnight Edition Liki Trike. For the sake of simplicity, this article will cover the two most compared trim levels of what Doona calls “the world’s most compact folding trike”.
Doona has never been known to be on the cheap end of the scale when it comes to pricing. All of their products are known to be of premium quality and like many other things, that quality comes at a price.
The price is one of the biggest immediate and most obvious differences between the S3 and the S5 trikes. There is a noticeable difference between the Doona Liki Trike S3 and S5, with the S5 being more expensive. See the latest Liki Trike prices on the official Doona Amazon storefront. Many parents wind up spending extra on the S5 because they find more value in the extra features the S5 has over the S3. More on those features below.
The physical features between the S3 and the S5 are fairly similar. Functionally both of the trikes are identical. The only differences in the trike itself between the two models are purely cosmetic.
The cosmetic features that differ between the two models are seat and canopy color options and wooden handlebars.
The S3 is available in 4 colors while the more expensive S5 is only available in 2 colors. The Doona Liki Trike S3 is available in Grey Hound, Flame Red, Desert Green, and Royal Blue. Above are images of all of the S3 trike colors.
The two colors the Doona Liki Trike S5 is available in are Racing Green and Nitro Black. The Racing Green color is a nod to the famous automotive color British Racing Green while Nitro Black is a pure black color. An important thing to note is the color selections on both the S3 trike and S5 trike only apply to the color of the seats and canopy. The rest of the Doona trike remains the same.
This is where the real value of the Liki Trike S5 shines through. For the extra money, The Doona Liki Trike S5 gets you the Premium Storage Bag and Travel Bag. The Travel Bag alone isn’t cheap when purchased separately! The Premium Storage Bag you get with the Liki Trike S5 adds more value when compared to purchasing it for the Liki Trike S3.
If you consider the value of the standard accessories that come with the Liki Trike S3 vs. the S5, the Doona S5 comes out on top. The S5 gives you a lot of accessories for the price premium. Of course, the value is only good if you want those additional accessories to begin with.
Both The Liki Trike S3 and S5 have the same optional equipment since they have the same technical specs. The optional accessories that do not come with either Doona trike are the Sticker Set and Rain Cover. The Sticker Set can be had in 3 different designs. You can choose Flames, Sticker Bomb, or B&W Cool Sketch for $12 per set. The Rain Cover goes over the Liki Trike while in use protecting your child from the rain. The Rain Cover is available on Doona’s official Amazon store. These are all also available for purchase directly on the Doona Trike website or through small online businesses like Pish Posh Baby.
Doona not only offers additional accessories for the Liki Trike itself but they also sell accessories for your child to wear while riding the S3 or S5 around town! These are the Liki T-shirt and Liki Cap. The T-shirt and the Cap are both priced at $10 each.
Let’s go a bit more into detail about the main difference between the S3 and the S5. As stated, most of the specifics between the models are identical. The basic materials of both are the same with the exception of the wooden handlebars that can be found on the Liki Trike S5. The handlebars are not only constructed of a different material but are visually different. The wooden handlebars found on the S5 are a much lighter color than the standard handlebars on the Liki Trike S3.
Overall, the two models of the Doona Trike, the S3 and the S5, are very similar. The S5 trike comes at a slightly more premium price and is interestingly available in fewer colors. Usually with price comes greater choice (think Porsche’s paint-to-sample program) but not in this case. The wooden handlebars available exclusively on the Doona Trike S5 are interesting but not necessarily value-added to many people.
The real value in the increased price of the Doona S5 trike which would be the deciding factor for many people, is the additional equipment that comes with the Doona S5 trike. Opting for the S5 trike gives you a lot of additional equipment for the price difference. This is a no-brainer as long as you wanted the accessories and one of the two S5 color options is what you wanted to begin with.
SUMMARY: The Doona Liki trike S3 and S5 are not cheap when compared to big box store trikes. They are built with the highest quality materials and are famously durable and stylish. When considering the durability and features of both the Doona S3 and S5 trikes, you can’t really go wrong with either option. The Doona Liki Trike S5 offers more than $50 of value over the S3 than the $50 price difference suggests.
