I work at a dealership myself and I would much prefer to use a “no haggle” pricing method, but customers tend to hate it. The Mazda CX-5 example that you posted where 1 dealer was willing to discount $1,800 off MSRP, they cannot realistically sustain making so little profit per sale so it means some poor sap got taken…

The best way to handle this situation is the aforementioned lease. Find a vehicle that has a large rebate (pick up trucks have the largest ones if that’s your thing) that can soak up your negative equity. I have seen as much as $12,000 rolled into a lease. In 3 years, you are done and you got to drive a brand new car…