Britax Pioneer 70 Combination Car Seat Review & Giveaway – ends 10/1

Everything Mommyhood welcomes you to the Britax Pioneer 70 Car Seat Giveaway!
Thanks to Britax for sponsoring this wonderful giveaway and our host, Everything Mommyhood, as well as our fabulous co-hosts, Green Grandma, Mew Review, Military Wives Saving, Spit Up is the New Black,  Faith Filled Footsteps, Downshifting PRO, and Coupon Spice, and a handful of other bloggers for helping promote.

Britax is a well know brand for making top of the line car seats with your child’s safety in mind. Britax car seats are easy to install, a breeze to use, and they offer great protection for your precious cargo. They have car seats that will keep your child safe from birth all the way up until a booster is no longer needed. If you are questioning what type of seat would be best for your little one, check out one of our old posts on Car Seat Safety.

We had the chance to review the hot of the press, newly released, Britax Pioneer 70 Combination to Harness Booster Seat! This just became available in July 2013. I picked the Garden Gate print, which has been a VERY popular print according to Britax.
The Pioneer 70 is a Combination Harness 2 Booster seat, which I’m sure you’re wondering what exactly does that mean. It means that it is a forward facing only seat with a harness that converts to a belt positioning booster. The minimum requirements for the Pioneer 70 are 2 years, 25lbs, and 30 inches to be able to use this seat forward facing while being harnessed (Make sure your child is at least 2 before forward facing, as now recommended by the AAP). If you can keep your child extended rear facing in their current seat, longer than age 2, by all means, please do so. If you are looking for a seat that will allow you to extended rear face, please check out my review of the Britax Pavilion 70-G3.

I am going to be reviewing/using the Pioneer 70 for my just turned 5 year old. She is 39lbs and 44.5 inches tall. I wanted a seat for her to keep her harnessed, and the Pioneer 70 is perfect with it’s higher seat limits (than other seats) for height and weight. I plan on keeping her harnessed until age 6. This seat will allow you to harness your child to 70lbs and 54 inches tall. Always make sure the straps are at or above your child’s shoulders. If they are below the shoulders, you need to move to the next harness height position. When using a harness on any car seat, two of the MOST important things are:
1- make sure the chest clip is on the chest, EVEN with the armpits, not on the belly
2- the straps should be snug as a hug, there should be NO slack at all

In order for a car seat to do it’s job and protect your child in the event of an accident, you must use the car seat correctly.

The seat cover on the Pioneer 70 is easy to wipe down, it’s also easy to remove to be able to clean as well, without uninstalling the car seat.

  After your child has outgrown the harness, you can then use this seat as a seat belt positioning booster, as long as your child is a minimum of 40lbs and 45 inches, all the way up until they reach 59 inches tall and 110lbs!

I really love the ease of use of Britax car seats, I LOVE that you do not have to re-thread the harness which is great if you have more than one child that will be using the seat, or just when your child grows, you won’t have to uninstall the seat to adjust the harness. To use the Quick adjust harness, just squeeze the handle at the top of the seat that is labeled “Pioneer 70” and pull up gently. This will move the harness height up for you, it’s that simple. Once you want to use this seat as a booster you will need to adjust the height all the way up, and you will need to store away the harness and front buckle. The manual that comes with will explain how to do so, and it’s very simple.

The Britax Pioneer 70 features a base with Safe Cell technology as you can see from the picture. This helps reduce the amount of pressure and force on the child in the event of an accident and lowers the center of gravity to the bottom of the car seat which will minimize injury to your child. Britax started using this Safe Cell technology on it’s car seats in 2010. Another great feature of this Britax car seat is the Integrated Steel Bars which will reduce forward flexing of the car seat in the event of a crash. True Side Impact Protection is another Britax feature, that protects your child in an accident. This means that the seat has deep side walls with energy absorbing foam, the deep side walls provide protection from intruding objects. It also keeps your child’s body inside the seat which will keep it from making contact with vehicle doors or windows and it minimizes side to side head movement. These reasons are why Britax seats are the way to go.

The Pioneer 70 also has a recline mode, you press the front adjust recline button on the front of the seat, and the seat reclines ever so slightly. This can ONLY be used while the seat is in harness mode. If you switch over to booster mode, remember to return the seat to the original straight up and down position.

In addition, you can see from the picture that there are color codes, red for the booster, and green (the green is covered up from the LATCH strap) for harness mode. This makes for easy installation and no guessing on what goes where.

You can also see that this seat has Premium LATCH connectors as well. This was important for me in a seat for my daughter as I drive a 2013 Ford Explorer with inflatable seat belts. Unfortunately, this seat can not be installed with inflatable seat belts, so I have to have LATCH connectors. UPDATE: Britax issued a release on 9/24/2013 that this seat is safe to use with my inflatable seatbelts!!! Yes! This is great because once your child reaches 40lbs, you MUST install with a seatbelt versus LATCH as the weight limit of LATCH is 40lbs. If you do not use the LATCH and use a seat belt instead, make sure you store away the LATCH connectors, underneath the seat pad. You can find out how from the manual included with the seat. Make sure you use the best way to install for you, which means the seat will not move more than 1 inch from side to side. Also remember to use the versa tether to tether the car seat to an anchoring point. This is very important. Having the car seat installed correctly is the only way to insure it will protect your child in the event of a crash. If you’re having trouble find an anchoring point, consult your car manual.

I love the integrated cup holders and arm rests too. This makes for a comfortable ride and allows my daughter to have her water cup right there with her.

The Britax Pioneer 70 is available in 7 different prints, you will see 5 of them in the picture above, not pictured is “Congo” which is a solid red print, and “Dakota” which is a gray/black print. The other prints in order as above from left to right is, Garden Gate, Kiwi, Onyx, Redwood, and Silvercloud. The MSRP of the Britax Pioneer 70 is $229.99. This seat is sold at Mass Retailers such as Target, Babies R Us, and Amazon.

Britax is generously giving one lucky reader their very own Britax Pioneer 70 in their choice of print, valued at $229.99!

US Residents, 18 and up only. One entrant per household. All winning entries will be verified. Winner will be picked randomly through the entry form, and will be contacted via email. They will have 48 hours to respond, if they do not respond a new winner will be chosen.
Giveaway begins 9/10/2013 at 12am EST and ends 10/1/2013 at 11:59pm EST.
GOOD LUCK

Disclosure: Everything Mommyhood is not responsible for sponsored prize shipment. I have not been compensated for the posting of this giveaway. I received the above mentioned product to facilitate the review. Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest or any other social media are not affiliated with this giveaway. By participating, you hereby release Facebook from any and all liability associated with this promotion. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact Everything Mommyhood.