Kia and Hyundai still pushing $19,990 drive-away on Cerato and i30

It's hard to find the right word for the current retail price of the Kia Cerato.

Surprising? Amazing? Outrageous? Fantastic?

Each of them fits the bill, especially for shoppers, when 2015-build cars are being cleared at a truly bargain-basement price.

When you do the sums on the Cerato it turns out that the latest showroom offer by the South Korean maker is lineball with much smaller cars.

The Cerato is being advertised at $19,990 drive-away, with an automatic gearbox. And Kia is also throwing a $1000 "gift card" into the deal.

Working backwards from $19,990, allowing a conservative $3000 for the auto and on-roads, the price drops to $16,990. Pick up the gift from headquarters, which most people apply to the final price, and we're talking about a $15,990 bottom line for the Cerato.

That's a brilliant deal for a small car that's not just a tiddler, although rival brands are not happy. "They are dumping. They have to be," says a disgruntled senior executive at one of the three remaining local carmakers.

And it's not just Kia. The sums look pretty nice on the Hyundai i30 at the moment.

The current $19,990 drive-away deal is a saving of close to $7000.

If you take the base price at $20,990, then add $2300 for an auto and $3700 for NSW on-road costs, you quickly get to $26,987 for a car that's available on the road for just $19,990.

So it's no wonder that the i30 was Australia's best selling car last month, or that Kia and Hyundai both intend to keep their sub-$20,000 drive-away deals going into the distant future.

Has competitive pricing tempted you towards a Kia or Hyundai? Let us know in the comments below.