Dover Honda

My husband and I had been shopping for a new car for about 2 weeks when we finally decided upon a 2009 Honda CR-V. We'd been to a few Honda dealers but ended up at Dover Honda since they had a particular color in stock. The dealership is pretty unassuming ... half of the lot is poorly paved and the other half is dirt, I believe. Both times we visited, no salesperson came out to greet us ... this is a plus for me, since I was pretty sick of being tackled the moment I stepped onto a lot. When we decided to go ahead and make an offer, we entered the showroom and were greeted by Casey Tong (also mentioned in another review here on Edmunds.com). I'd done a lot of research on Edmunds.com, Consumerreports.com and other sites and books about buying new cars and dealing with dealerships, so I pretty much knew what to expect and Casey fit the mold of the model car salesman. However, he seemed personable and sincere and I was comfortable doing business with him. After a brief overview of features and some anecdotal stories of former customers he'd sold CR-Vs to, he allowed us to test drive the vehicle we'd chosen by ourselves. When we returned to the showroom after the test drive, we met up with Casey at his desk. He asked us how much we were hoping to pay, and I told him we wanted a fair price but he should make the first offer (just in case it was lower than ours). I came armed with a very competitive offer from another dealership I'd received through an internet query, and hoped he would be able to match it or do better. His offer was about $500 more than the other one, so I shared with him the offer we wanted him to match. With minimal dickering, we were able to get the car at the price we wanted, which was $1000 below invoice + $325 administration fees (this is high, but since the total price was what we wanted, it didn't matter and I was willing to give him something) and one accessory item. It helped that we were shopping at a time when all these dealerships seemed to have an abundant supply of CRVs and were receiving a cash-to-dealer bonus from Honda (though 9/08/2009). Casey told us that the dealership lost money on our deal, although I have a hard time believing that. After closing the deal and shaking hands, we went to get a check from our bank while the dealership prepared the car for us. We returned an hour later and met with someone in the finance office to do the paperwork. I was a little worried we'd be given a hard sell on extra warranties, etc., but we weren't at all! It was very quick and painless and we were out the door with keys to our new car within a matter of minutes. I'd highly recommend Dover Honda. We never felt uncomfortably pressured to buy, the atmosphere seemed congenial, and the dealership is employee-owned ... a refreshing surprise after having visited many mega-dealerships.