This a review of the Britax Pioneer 70. It is not meant to be a full review, which you have plenty in the web. I would like to make a few comments from a new user perspective.
The Pioneer 70 is Frontier 90’s little brother. From a size perspective, is almost the same frame than the Frontier, despite the Pioneer’s weight and height limits are smaller. Why have I bought the Pioneer instead of the Frontier? Just because of availability in my country. If I could, I would have bought the Frontier, which also has the convenient “ClickTight” technology.
*Size and Weight
The seat is large. Its main competitor is the Graco Nautilus, which is the same size but the Graco looks more compact, probably because of the side impact protection wings of the Britax. The seat is also heavy, I have to move it quite often and it can be done but is not very convenient. However, you can’t really expect a seat to be small and light and also have such a long lifespan as the Pioneer, so these issues cannot be taken as a con.
One issue I have found is that the seat does not have a natural way to hold it with one hand. It lacks any kind of hook or any part to hold it. You must use both hands to carry it, which is not very convenient when you have to install and transport it often.
*Installation (harness mode)
I installed it with lap and lap-shoulder belt. I have a compact car and honestly speaking I was afraid of not having enough room to install the seat. Basically, the limitation was the width distance between the buckle insert and the belt. I have a Peugeot 206 and the seat could be installed with almost no free space available. This is not the ideal situation, at least a small space between the seat frame and the buckle should exist. Unfortunately, most seats are made thinking on average US cars, which tend to be much bigger than those found outside US (like Japanese or European designs).
Probably the only real issue that disappointed me was that neither the instructions nor the official installation videos are very clear on how to route the belt. In the videos, the belt seems to lie flat (i.e. parallel to the seat cushion) but when you install it the natural path for the belt is more vertical (i.e. parallel to the seat back). Also, the path for the shoulder belt portion is a bit awkward. It turns vertical on one side of the seat, just below the side impact protection wing, but there is no guide there, so the belt touches the seat cover and also, depending on the car, I can see it touching the edge of the Styrofoam cushioning, which doesn’t seem right.
Despite these issues, I was able to reach a firm installation, despite not the most elegant one.
It would also be nice that the seat design make use somewhat of the shoulder portion of the seatbelt. It just useless. Rolling forward is preventing mainly by the anchor connector on the back, but my car and most cars at least in my country don’t have LATCH. In theory, anchors are not required except near the maximum weight.
*Adjustments
Height adjustments are fine, but are very difficult to do while the child is seating on the seat. I found it difficult to raise the headrest in this situation. Also, for some reason is not easy to tighten the straps with the child seated. Some people complaint that could not find the release button, which is buried deep inside the frame. I could find it easily but as mentioned, had a hard time tightening the straps.
One very annoying issue I found is that is almost impossible to recline the seat while the child is seated. It only has two positions that at one point you have to lift the seat somewhat from the base at this is very difficult to do while the child is seated. I don’t know if this is normal or not, but I found it quite inconvenient.
*Overall
Overall impression is of a good product. Maybe I was expected something a bit better for the price (which is very expensive in my country) and the renowned brand name in terms of convenience, but from a quality perspective is very nice and most important, the child seems to be very well protected and also very comfortable seating there.
The Pioneer 70 is Frontier 90’s little brother. From a size perspective, is almost the same frame than the Frontier, despite the Pioneer’s weight and height limits are smaller. Why have I bought the Pioneer instead of the Frontier? Just because of availability in my country. If I could, I would have bought the Frontier, which also has the convenient “ClickTight” technology.
*Size and Weight
The seat is large. Its main competitor is the Graco Nautilus, which is the same size but the Graco looks more compact, probably because of the side impact protection wings of the Britax. The seat is also heavy, I have to move it quite often and it can be done but is not very convenient. However, you can’t really expect a seat to be small and light and also have such a long lifespan as the Pioneer, so these issues cannot be taken as a con.
One issue I have found is that the seat does not have a natural way to hold it with one hand. It lacks any kind of hook or any part to hold it. You must use both hands to carry it, which is not very convenient when you have to install and transport it often.
*Installation (harness mode)
I installed it with lap and lap-shoulder belt. I have a compact car and honestly speaking I was afraid of not having enough room to install the seat. Basically, the limitation was the width distance between the buckle insert and the belt. I have a Peugeot 206 and the seat could be installed with almost no free space available. This is not the ideal situation, at least a small space between the seat frame and the buckle should exist. Unfortunately, most seats are made thinking on average US cars, which tend to be much bigger than those found outside US (like Japanese or European designs).
Probably the only real issue that disappointed me was that neither the instructions nor the official installation videos are very clear on how to route the belt. In the videos, the belt seems to lie flat (i.e. parallel to the seat cushion) but when you install it the natural path for the belt is more vertical (i.e. parallel to the seat back). Also, the path for the shoulder belt portion is a bit awkward. It turns vertical on one side of the seat, just below the side impact protection wing, but there is no guide there, so the belt touches the seat cover and also, depending on the car, I can see it touching the edge of the Styrofoam cushioning, which doesn’t seem right.
Despite these issues, I was able to reach a firm installation, despite not the most elegant one.
It would also be nice that the seat design make use somewhat of the shoulder portion of the seatbelt. It just useless. Rolling forward is preventing mainly by the anchor connector on the back, but my car and most cars at least in my country don’t have LATCH. In theory, anchors are not required except near the maximum weight.
*Adjustments
Height adjustments are fine, but are very difficult to do while the child is seating on the seat. I found it difficult to raise the headrest in this situation. Also, for some reason is not easy to tighten the straps with the child seated. Some people complaint that could not find the release button, which is buried deep inside the frame. I could find it easily but as mentioned, had a hard time tightening the straps.
One very annoying issue I found is that is almost impossible to recline the seat while the child is seated. It only has two positions that at one point you have to lift the seat somewhat from the base at this is very difficult to do while the child is seated. I don’t know if this is normal or not, but I found it quite inconvenient.
*Overall
Overall impression is of a good product. Maybe I was expected something a bit better for the price (which is very expensive in my country) and the renowned brand name in terms of convenience, but from a quality perspective is very nice and most important, the child seems to be very well protected and also very comfortable seating there.