New hatch around 20k

[BA Baracus]

Went looking today, looked at Mazda 3, i30, focus, corolla, nissanboxthing (think was called tiida).

Mum far prefers the focus out of them. She was already leaning a bit toward corolla because hers has been good but after seeing the newer corolla it was sort of ruled out. It doesn't offer enough boot space and the console/gear shift of the car is strait out of star trek, really strange interior set up. Focus was her pick of them and what she'd like to get.

Didn't do any specific dealing but inquired about price. On the ford website the runout model is offered with smooth pack in manual at $18,990. Guy reckons that it is actually cheaper to go by normal retail drive away price and ad the auto + smooth pack once on roads are factored in to the website offer, and showed us figures to back that. Initial no real wheeling dealing price he gave was $23,400 drive away. I mentioned I'd heard of people driving away the auto with smooth pack for $19,990 and he effectively told me that was BS. He said if I can find that to do it and also tell him as they would buy them off that dealer and resell them themselves.

I find that hard to believe, aren't they ultra keen to get rid of these? New models coming and it's currently a buyers market in terms of cars. She is also not worried on color etc and would purchase the car cash rather then finance. We got told by one guy cash makes no diff as they receive kick backs from finance but mum works in an industry related to this and knows the benefits to them are actually better getting cash.

Anyway, she's going to start ringing around dealers tomorrow or Monday and see what prices can be offered to get it down around the 20k mark. We are buying in Brisbane, if anyone's bought one in auto for $19,990 drive away it would be heaps appreciated if you could let me know which dealer you went to, or if anyone can recommend in general what might be the best dealers in Brisbane to deal with overall (can PM if rather not say in thread). Thanks in advance for any help.