I purchased this for my 3, almost 4 year old daughter. I looked at many other bikes before I decided on this one. The main selling feature was that it came with a hand break standard. My older daughter was almost in a horrible crash when she was 5 because the chain came off her bike on a hill, so the brakes didn't work. Yes, I know that she could have put her feet down to stop, but she was too scared to think of it at the time. Thank God a stranger heard our yelling and stepped in to stop her.
UPDATE: My now 4 yr old daughter has been riding this bike almost every day for over 3 months now and we are still happy with it. We have found it to be very sturdy and have only had to reattach the bell once and have tightened all the bolts.