Repair shop keeping up with the Beemer boom
Ian’s Garage moves to expanded digs on southwest side to service city bustling with BMWs
Yes, Santa Fe is a Subaru town.
But Santa Fe is a BMW town, too.
Just watch the cars on the road. You can barely go a minute without seeing a BMW or two or three.
You are not seeing things. There are 6,373 BMWs registered in Santa Fe County, according to the New Mexico Taxation and Revenue Department.
Among luxury brands, that’s about 2,300 more than Mercedes-Benz and about double the number of Volvo, Cadillac or Audi, and five times the number of Porsche or Lexus.
Some 2,000 of those BMWs have had servicing at Ian’s Garage, an exclusive BMW repair shop owned by Ian and Theresa Clemmer. That volume of customers created a logjam on the Rufina Street property Ian Clemmer had overseen for nine years.
Clemmer operated out of a onebay tandem garage for two cars with 10 parking spaces — six leased from a neighbor — where he sometimes doubled-parked up to 20 cars. That is now in the past.
Ian’s Garage moved to a new garage the Clemmers built at 7501 Gooney Bird Way at Constellation Drive off Airport Road near N.M. 599. Ian Clemmer and mechanic Jeff Griffin started work Monday at the new location.
“I wasn’t planning to do this, but our work expanded beyond what we could accommodate on Rufina,” he said.
The new garage has three bays with five Rotary Lift lifts and one space with no lifts dedicated for drive-up diagnosis or simple jobs.
The Clemmers have 10 parking spaces up front but also an 89-by50-foot secure lot in back where Ian Clemmer figures they can keep 30 cars.
BMWs, like other high-end European cars, often require specialized mechanic training and tools and access to BMW’s information and diagnostics system, which Ian’s Garage has. Other than the local BMW dealer, Clemmer believes he’s the only other Santa Fe mechanic doing all levels of BMW service, from engine and transmission replacements to oil changes.
Warranty and recall work is referred to the Santa Fe BMW dealership.
Having six spots instead of two allows Clemmer and Griffin to work on multiple cars and leave longer jobs in place.
“We spent a lot of time shuffling cars so we could get work done [at Rufina],” said Griffin, who arrived nearly two years ago to make Ian’s Garage a two-mechanic garage. “Now we don’t have to move two cars or three to get one in.”
For the past 1½ years, Ian’s Garage has average two to six new customers a week, but Theresa Clemmer believes that number will grow to six to eight.
Customer Bob Borden has brought his fleet of BMWs to Ian’s Garage since the beginning and, before that, when Clemmer was a mechanic at Santa Fe BMW. Borden has five BMWs made between 1998 and 2012.
“First and foremost, Ian is very knowledgeable, very personable and always accommodating,” Borden said. “We have five BMWs because of Ian and Theresa. To be honest, I knew the day would come where they would move. I always knew they would be wildly successful.”
The Clemmers bought the 0.9-acre property in February 2018 and brought in Perez-Daple Architects of Santa Fe and general contractor John G. Rehders of Santa Fe. The Clemmers received their certificate of occupancy Wednesday, a business license Thursday and opened for business Monday.
Theresa Clemmer and architect Harry Perez-Daple both use the word “European” to describe the garage’s design.
The out walls are clad with metal, ribbed panels. Most of the roof slopes at 12 degrees from north to south, but a small section at the rear slopes at 45 degrees from south to north with built-in, north-facing skylights. The back walls on the north side also have windows.
“Ian wanted as much natural light as possible,” Perez-Daple said.
The new garage has been about three years in the making. Theresa Clemmer quit her job 2½ years ago to become office manager.
“It took me about three months to realize this would be short-lived,” she said about the Rufina garage, which the Clemmers leased. “Ian was working 12 hours a day, seven days a work.”
Griffin was hired a few months later. Ian Clemmer doesn’t expect to add more mechanics for now.
“Right now, Jerry and I can handle the load with more efficient workspace,” Clemmer said.
“I wasn’t planning to do this, but our work expanded beyond what we could accommodate on Rufina.” Ian Clemmer on moving his garage