This little car is super-cute, and despite having previously read the reviews with concerns about the wheels, we ended up buying it after my two year old daughter excitedly tossed it in the cart whilst we were blowing her remaining birthday money. Sure, I thought, why not?
I guess we'd probably buy it again. Going to toy stores we're so limited in what's 'safe' to buy, ie. not from China. This toy is made in Malta where Playmobil has been made forever, of ABS plastic which is stable and pretty safe. Also, Playmobil has tested pretty safe with the Ecology Center's xrf tests, not surprisingly.
So, love the little car, love the little driver - we never seem to have enough of these people, as my daughter takes them everywhere with her, often misplacing them, and a hours-long search for that one specific person ensues - but that issue with the wheels is a bit disappointing.
There are really two problems. One is that the black part is supposed to spin around, while the yellow part of the wheel is stationary, and this is just a lousy design. On wood floors the car seems to more slide than roll. If they were going to create a wheel that works in this manner they should have gone for a textured, grippy surface, kind of like the big (4+) Playmobil car wheels have. This seems like it would not only be feasible, but common sense.
Or they could have just made a traditional wheel design. Why mess with what works?
The end result, as other reviewers have mentioned, is a car that, if you give it a push, only moves a few inches. Of course, you can diligently push it too and fro, but you do kind of want to give it a hard push and see it spring into action, and it's kind of disappointing when it resists performing this totally reasonable task.
In any case, this seems to be a universal issue with Playmobil 123 vehicles; we also bought the safari vehicle and it has the same wheel design, and all the other vehicles at the toy store appeared, visually, to share this same design flaw. The motorcycle, which we also own, is an exception to the rule and rolls quite well, as expected.
This one is still a cute toy, and my daughter likes it in spite of its flaw, hence the 4 stars.