A New MINI Dealer in Florida

Sections: In the Press | Official News Dec 3rd, 2008 14 Comments

Sandy Sansing, owner of Sandy Sansing Dealerships, has announced the addition of a MINI dealership to his automotive product line-up during a news conference last week.

There are about 1,500 MINI Coopers registered in the Pensacola area, but the nearest dealerships are in Jacksonville and Baton Rouge, La., said Peter Suomala, BMW marketing manager for North America.

“There’s an indication that there are people here who might consider a MINI but don’t want to buy one because there’s no servicing nearby,” Suomala said.

Sansing said ground will be broken within the next month on the 5,000-square-foot MINI dealership, which will be next to the BMW building at 186 W. Airport Blvd.

This is great news for those of you on the Gulf Central coast of Florida. Thanks to Rodney for sending this in!

[ Sandy Sansing's auto empire expands ] Pnj.com

Written By: DB

C4

About time!
C4

Now they need a MINI in the Naples area….
Ken Lucas

How about a MINI dealer in Raleigh, NC.
Michael

Boulder, Colorado please!
Lee L

They actually announced about a month ago that Flow MINI will be building a dealership in the Triangle area, but they were still in the site selection process at that time and there was no direction given as to where it might end up other than they were looking at sites in Raleigh and Cary.

http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1277280.html
EmJay

Naples FTW!
TSizemore3

Now they need a MINI in the Naples areaâ€¦.

I thought they were supposed to build a dealership in the South Ft. Myers area but I haven’t heard anything since. I do hope it is still going to happen as Southwest Florida is pretty underserved for MINI dealerships, although not nearly as badly as the panhandle and other areas of the country.
STIGG

C4… I bought my 1st MINI a 2002 “S” in Naples. Nice city!

As far as new dealers go… I have always wondered why Santa Barbara, Ca, a rather upscale area of California, had no MINI dealership attached to the BMW lot. Recently my wife and I did a short 3 day vacation there. Her A4 died, a starter coil, the 3rd. So while waiting for the Audi I walked over to the BMW guys and asked the question why none here? They suggested that BMW would want them to build a separate area and hire separate teams for the MINI and they didn’t see the benefits. I suggested that the closed Chrysler dealership across the street would be good and probably cheap. The closest dealer to SB is quite a drive.
Nick

Good, I will have a choice: drive 180 miles East to Jax or 170 miles West to Pensacola. Oops, my’05 MCS past its’ 4 yr warranty in Aug.
AeroJammin

This news made my week…time to replace 4.5 hours to ATL with 40 mins west. Personally, I am excited that I no longer have to decide whether 310 miles to Jax, 296 miles to Baton Rouge, or 290 miles to ATL is better. BEST CHRISTMAS EVER!
AeroJammin

Also, apparently MINI’s hate for the state of Alabama is still present since I figured Mobile, Al would get a dealership over anywhere in the panhandle. Not that Mobile would be closer for the majority of Alabama MINI owners.
Bruce

Glad to have this confirmation. I heard that Sandy Sansing was going to get this, back in July. I ordered the first of August from Tom Bush in Jacksonville. I too am pretty much equidistant between Jacksonville, Baton Rouge and Atlanta, as I live in the Ft Walton Beach area. Nice to know that when my MINI needs service I don’t have to go through a tankful of gas.

Although road trips are fun …………
Madoc

AeroJammin:

I talked to the Mobile, AL BMW dealer sales manager in July and he said that they were lobbying for the MINI store. He said it would come down to CSI numbers – I guess Sansing in Pensacola had the best numbers. That’s OK by me, Pensacola is only 50 miles from me – much better than a trip to Baton Rouge!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1070696962 Kevin Stephenson

Looks like Alabama is getting one as well in Birmingham.

http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stories/2009/01/26/daily29.html?ana=e_du_p

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