So I picked up my 2018 LX with advanced last night, and tonight I figured out how to get LKAS or lane keep assist to work (simple if 800 page manual is skimmed)! Just as I thought when I was shopping 2017 closeouts and no one was even coming close to 2018 prices for same trim when I tried Truecar quotes. So I immediately gave up on 2017 (which doesn't have LKAS in North America) because I knew for my long road trips that it would be great.
So it worked well on the 10 miles I drove tonight, in the dark, on four lanes, two lanes, and pretty curvy curves. Take a quick look at your cellphone while driving (I'd bet 90% of drivers do it) and this could save your life.
Here is a personal anecdote of a rollover that would have been avoided some three years ago if I had LKAS (or AEB) enabled car. Headed to BC from the Midwest for a nephew's wedding and wanted to check for which exit had the cheapest gas in Wyoming on Gas Buddy. Very light interstate traffic, and before I looked at the map, I checked traffic. Only one semi ahead about three quarters of a mile, no one within a mile behind me. What I didn't notice is that I was on a deceptive grade uphill and the semi was doing less than perhaps 40 mph. I was within three cars lengths of him doing 75 when I spotted him (we are talking about 20 seconds later). I made a violent lane change that required a large angle across the road and wasn't able to correct back on the asphalt before I hit the loose dry dirt of the median. Car turned 90 degrees to direction of travel and immediately rolled 360. No airbags deployed, I don't believe that car had side airbags anyway. Pretty amazing to walk away from a 75mph rollover! Obviously I didn't die, but I did break half a dozen ribs that took 9 months to heal (compared to 6 weeks when I broke ribs when I was young) - a lot of pain for sure. Yes, perhaps I made some errors in judgement, but those are exactly what current safety tech is helpful for. That was my only major accident in some 45 years of driving and it was certainly major. My car was totaled of course and I replaced it with an identical low mileage 2001 on the trip after the wedding on the West Coast.
Knock down a trim level and you will pay a similar price for a 2018. Personally, I will go for functionality over luxury any day. I'm also feeling quite pampered by my LX versus my 2001 car, but perhaps any new car would have done that. As a bonus, your Niro will get better mpg lowering further your cost of ownership. There are pretty good odds that gas will be well over three dollars by summertime.
