Alaskan MINI Owner,

Like you, and every other MINI owner out there, I completely fell in love when I test drove my first MINI. Now that I am a proud MINI owner (2009 JCW Clubman), I am attempting to get together MINI owners to start a club in Alaska. There are many MINIs on the Alaskan roads as I see them regularly! Although I don't know the first thing about running or starting a club, I would like to get together for road rallies at least a couple times a year (quarterly would be ideal). I would like to get a feel for how many MINI owners would be interested in getting together every few months.

I’ve managed to contact everyone from Alaska on the MINI Owners Lounge and am sending emails to all Alaskan NAM members. I am also throwing around names and badge ideas… So far, MINI Motoring Club of Alaska is the best I’ve come up with. Not that it took much effort! I’ve also posted the badge ideas here on the club forum. I would love any feedback you might have to offer!

Please let me know if this is something you would be interested in participating in or not. If interested, please let me know what day/time would be good for our first get together, perhaps over dinner at a place in Anchorage. You can email me or just post on the club forum.

I look forward to meeting more Alaskan MINI’s and their owners!

Let's Motor.

Cassie

 

 

Cassie,

Where have you been for the last 2 years of my life??? I have been looking and asking every Mini owner I know or see if there is a club.

Congratulations on your Mini, I drove one just that that at Lyberger's a while back, but couldn't part with my car. I would love to assist/participate with the club, but I'm not much of an organizer or I would have done this myself. Lack of time or energy or maybe too much into just plain driving my car .

The name sounds good to me and the badges look AWESOME!! Can't wait to purchase one and sport that on my Mini!

 

So glad we found eachother! I'm driving my husband nuts with all this MINI talk...

I test drove the same JCW Clubman at Lybergers...even made them an offer. But they wouldn't come down on the price at all. So I found a very similar JCW in Denver and picked it up for nearly $10k less! They sure like to price gouge us up here.

Glad you like the badges! I was trying to come up with something as far as a badge/logo is concerned for us Alaskans. My favorite is the bottom one.

I'll keep you posted on when a meeting will take place...any day/time that's good for you for a first meet-up? Hoping to get "everyone" (which consists of 3 people so far) together to get a road rally organized for May/June time frame. Maybe do Seward or somewhere down Turnagain Arm?

Can you PM me your contact info? Or perhaps your name?? I would like to keep a member list with names, location (just city), phone, email address, all that good stuff.

Can't wait to go Motor!!

 

I'd like to be a part of the new Alaska club. Owned my Mini since 2007. Mothballed until late April, however would like to stay in touch. Live in Anchorage and can be reached through NAM or at richs@gci.net.

Rich Schmidt
COOL S

 

Fantastic! I'll add another to the list... Will most definitely keep you updated an all the new club happenings!

Thanks!

 

Sweet... at least 3 of us (dreams of Itialian Job). I'll pm you my contact info tonight.

I like the bottom badge and the second badge with Denali in the background. And if I recall they wanted somewhere around 34k for that one and that was way over priced. I almost got one from Pennsyvlania just before I found mine, but they wouldn't dicker on the price. Their loss.

My wife gets irritated with my car and tells me I'm obsessed... go figure. Pick any day and we can all go to Seward or somewhere down Turnagain Arm maybe Mcque Creek (spelling??)

 

The Denali badge is also one of my favorites... So Denali badge it is!

When I drove it, they had just got it and were asking almost $37k I showed them all the others I found in the lower 48 and they still wouldn't come down. Wonder how much they finally sold it for??? If we find the buyer, we could have a set of twin MINIs in our club...

I think it's McHugh creek...on the way to Girdwood. We could just drive down to Girdwood and make stops along the way. Its a gorgeous drive... Maybe have dinner at Double Musky...though its pretty $pendy, there's a lot of good places to eat in Girdwood. Even the pizza place near Tesoro is fantastic.

Let's face it: we are obsessed. But I'm ok with that. In fact, I love it!

 

Sweet picture, a gal named Kim from Seward sent it to me from a road rally they organized a couple years back. That's Exit Glacier in the back ground, near Seward.

Can't wait to get some more fantastic shots like this one!

 

Hello all! I am new to NAM and a new MINI owner (really new just got mine on the 17th of MAR). I just found out last week I will be getting stationed in AK over at Elmendorf AFB. Good to see there are other MINI owners out in AK.

 

Welcome to NAM! And nice looking MCS! Alaska is great, I'm sure you'll love it. You'll be surprised at how well the MINI handles in the snow...

Let us know when you get up here and we'll plan a rally!

Happy Motoring!

-Cassie

 

Congratulations on your Mini... My son loves the laser blue color. What's your car's name??

I hope you get here soon!!! We can be your tour guides!!!

 

Hey thanks for the welcome. Havent named my car yet, still seeing what feels right. I would love tour guides. Oh and does the free maintenance warranty apply in AK? It doesnt in Europe

 

Chica01,

We have a BMW dealer here in anchorage close to elmendorf, but I don't know if they will honor the warranty. Last time I spoke to them, the response I got was we only warranty Mini's they sell.. boo on them.

So I contacted the nearest Mini dealer, Northwest Mini (in Seattle, WA area) and they will honor the warranty, but only pay for getting the car to them. You would have to foot the bill to get it back. Not bad, but 1,500 miles to get back here or put it on a barge and wait a week to get it back. About $800 bucks last I looked.

I'm not sure how long MrsDarcy or Cool S has been in Alaska, but I've been here, let's just say a while and we can motor to some beautiful locations. Last I knew, Elmendorf was considered and overseas tour so you will enjoy the extra pay!!!

 

From what I understand NO warranty work can be done in Alaska, including the BMW dealership. After I purchased my MINI, I had a very long conversation with the MINI warranty department... I was upset to say the least that they wouldn't just have BMW of Anchorage take care of my MINI if something went wrong. Which is what I assumed when I bought it.

Like AK.JCW said, you have to take it to the nearest MINI dealer (aparently, they have the only MINI certified mechanics), which would be a royal pain in the ****. I eventually got them to agree to have something "minor" repaired at BMW under warranty, but for any major repairs, it must be sent to Seattle. I've been lucky so far (knock-on-wood). Too bad we don't have a MINI dealer up here... There are places you can take it to, but it's out-of-poket. So no "free maintenance" here...

As for me, I've been up in Alaska since birth... Can you beat that AK.JCW?!?! There are some great places to see, and many I still haven't been to! My husband is Air Force, and yes, the COLA and extra BAH is great! When are you expecting to arive?

 

Wow! you would think the BMW dealership would give us a discount at least. Well no warranty here or in AK. Yea, its an overseas and glad to have the COLA. We get COLA in Germany of course too. I Will be there the 1st of OCT. I've already been contacted by my sponsor too! And I have started looking at apartments on line to get an idea what I want. I'm thinking about getting one with a garage to protect my Mini. I would be heartbroken if something happened to her . Thanks for the info!!

 

MrsDarcy you're asking me to go down a slippery sloap... I know the "Rules" about asking peoples age. It's a touchy subject for some people, but since birth... that would all depend on when birth happened... was it over 30 years ago?

 

That is a negative... My birth did not occur over 30 years ago. Because I am a woman and therefore I am forever 29

I take it the day you entered this world was over 30 years ago. Perhaps you've got me beat. Perhaps...

 

It's official: The first MINI Motoring Club of Alaska Rally is scheduled for Saturday May 1st! We'll be meeting up at the Carrs Huffman in Anchorage at 2:00pm. From there, we are driving down the Seward Hwy to Chair 5 in Girdwood for grub.

So far we have 4 people signed up: COOL S, AK.JCW, MrsDarcy, and one other non-NAM member.

I'm working on updating the website with meeting information. If anyone has a question please post here or send me a PM.

Very excited to meet more local MINI owners and get the ball rolling for future rallies!

 

MrsDarcy,

I found another one at the grocery store and handed him a flyer. I didn't catch his name, but it was a DS\W. He sounded very interested in meeting and chatting, but I had to get back home.

Did we get anymore signups on the website?

 

I keep seeing them everywhere! Glad you are too... Keep passing out the flyers! It really seems to be working...

We've got two additional members... But that was just my husband running into one of them while he was out for a run, not aquired from the website. They haven't told me if they would like to participate in the first rally or not, but want to be updated on any club happenings.

We've got another member from NAM too: caine32. That brings us to 9 members! Yeah!!

I'll be sure to keep my eyes peeled for any contact from the website!

 

I feel like I'm always on the "hunt" for MINIs! Everytime I see one, I follow it... Though I can never seem to catch them. I keep seeing the same one in Eagle River (MCS DS/B, bonnet stripes). We waive at eachother a few days a week. Today I decided to chase him down, but alas, I lost his trail...

I think they may be avoiding me. It must be creepy getting chased by an overly-eager almost crazed woman, waiving a flyer at you, "TAKE THIS FLYER!!! JOIN MY CLUB!! WE'RE DOING ROAD RALLIES!!"

Yeah...that's creepy. I've got issues...

 

Just a reminder to everyone: The first MMCA Road Rally is scheduled for Saturday, May 1st! We are meeting at Carrs Huffman at 2:00 pm and heading down to Girdwood for dinner at Chair 5. I would like to get confirmation from everyone who will be attending.

Here is the list so far:
Chris (AK.JCW)
Rich (COOL S)
Paul (from Seward)
Cassie (MrsDarcy)

Everyone else is unconfirmed. If you’re not on the list and would like to come, please respond so I can add you (and so we won’t leave without you!). If you decide to come at the last minute, no problem! Just shoot me a text or call me at the number below…

Can’t wait to meet everyone face-to-face!


Cassie
gameexchange@clearwire.net
907.317.2064

 

Our first Alaska spring rally (hopefully annual spring rally) to Girdwood was great fun!







Great Fun.. can't wait to do it again soon.

 

Those are some good lookin' Alaskan MINIs!

Thank you to everyone that participated in MMCA’s First Annual Spring Road Rally! Thanks to you guys, it was a success! I’m sorry not everyone could make it, but hopefully with everyone’s input and a bit more planning, more can make it to the next one.

Here are some suggestions for the next rally:

Seward - Paul graciously offered to host a BBQ at his home in Seward. It’s about a 3 hour drive…Halibut fishing anyone??
Butte – Take the Old Glenn Hwy exit, head toward Palmer. There are some fantastic twisties on this road! Would make a good short rally…
Cooper Landing - For what I think are obvious reasons…more great twisties, and beautiful views.
Talkeetna – Another good short trip.
Fairbanks – Head north for the longest day of the year. See Denali, get some sun, and maybe hit the hot springs. They are supposed to have some fun summer solstice activities… This would be a long road trip or an overnighter.

Lets plan to meet on a Saturday sometime in June for any of the above activities (except Fairbanks, as solstice falls on a Monday). If there are any other suggestions, please let us know! For those of you that can’t get away for very long, but would still like to meet up again (or for the first time), somewhere more local might work best. The Bears/Moose’s tooth are both excellent places. We could plan for an Anchorage meeting in late May/early June, then plan on another Road Rally in June or even July.

To anyone who took pictures: Please send them to me so I can add them to the website!

It was a blast to meet everyone and put some faces to our names/MINIs/NAM aliases! I had a great time… and can’t wait to meet up again!