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I'd say I got screwed purchasing my last car as I didn't know as much as I do now about the process end to end. Well screwed in some parts and not screwed in others.
I purchased my Mercedes C300 from the dealer CPO and ended up paying sticker price for it as they weren't willing to negotiate price and even ended up paying a few junk fees such as a detailing fee or something similar. But this was my "first" car purchase (well technically second, but I had an accident that totaled my first car within a few months of buying it).
I went CPO 1 year old as I had read a lot on how bad an idea it is to buy cars like Mercedes and BMW new due to the depreciation hit being so high and why eat that? Since then I've learned a lot and my BMW is on order right now and will be a new car purchase.
New can have its advantages, like knowing its history, and built is even better as you don't need to compromise on whatever options the car comes with. When I got my C300 there were options I wanted, like adaptive headlights, that weren't on the cars on sale used at the time. Of course, I could have waited for the golden car to pop up, but building allowed me to not have that issue. Especially since I had the same issue looking at new BMWs. They either didn't have the options I wanted or had options added in I didn't want which pushed things out of budget.
This time I've done a far better job negotiating and researching ahead of time so I've evaporated most of, or all, of the first 2 years of estimated depreciation making the new car built the way I like it no more expensive than a year old CPO I was considering.
The biggest problem ordering is the delay. I didn't do PCD or ED, sadly, but I'm still waiting on a car ordered in early August to be delivered.
All that being said, there really isn't any true screwing going on. The sales people want to get you as close to sticker price as they can and we want to pay as little as we can. Sometimes we'll win and sometimes we'll lose. I may not be able to get as good as deal on my next BMW or I may get a better one. Incentives and market realities change so every time you hit the pavement trying to buy will yield slightly different results. I was very happy with my Mercedes and I hope I'm equally happy with my BMW and pricing just fades away after a while. Especially since I don't lease I finance and pay my cars off in 3 years.
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