Mini Cooper Opens Dealership In El Paso

By ABC-7 Anchor/Reporter Maria Garcia

EL PASO — In this recession, many might think now is not the time to open a new car dealership, but Mini Cooper is ready to set up shop in El Paso.

“I like the fact that it’s very sporty and I had really fallen for them back when I was in high school”, said recent college grad – Jonathan Macias, who waited years to buy his Mini Cooper – and had to go Scottsdale to get it.

That’s because the company is a little picky about where it opens its dealerships. The market, they say, has to be ripe for the Mini.

Two years ago, they wrote El Paso off.

A research company said the sun city didn’t have the buying power to sustain a Mini dealer.

But BMW of El Paso’s general manager, Michael Cheatham thought differently.

“El Paso’s got an unbelievable future, I think the next the next 3 to 15 years are going to be ones of extreme growth.”

He had to get Mini revved up about the borderland economy.

So he wrote to them, convincing Mini the borderland was ready.

Cheatham cited the medical school, Fort bliss growth, and Las Cruces shoppers as some reasons, “”El Paso really becoming, in reality, a major medical area for Latin America and North America on the U.S / Mexican border.”

Now, Mini of El Paso may wind up being the largest mini center in the United States.

For Macias, it’s evidence his native El Paso is morphing into the city he wants, “it means that El Paso is growing – slowly, but surely and it gives people like me options, and the generations to come.”

He also says it really illustrates one more thing.

“It really shows that El Paso has that upward mobility and contrary to the misconception in Texas, we’re not all about owning big F150s or big F250s.”

And Cheatham now knows the Borderland is being noticed, “Mini USA specifically said ‘El Paso’s back on the map.”