MINI executives (and it's advertising company BSSP) often talk about priding themselves on being enthusiast based, catering to the enthusiast while making the car open to the larger market, supporting the enthusiast culture that thrives around their quirky little car from Oxford.

So it has always struck me as odd that while the ad company invites clubs out on runs, and the dealers seem to host a few club based events, and many of the techs, sales people, and dealer employees drive MINIs and are enthusiasts. Why doesn't MINI take the initiative and make the community information readily available to new owners?

Around here we see all these is waving dead threads, it took me two or three waves before I got that it was common practice, now I always wave/flash/honk/tap brakes or in some way acknowledge other MINIs in my travels.

Many of us have had dozens of encounters with enthusiasts who had no idea that NAM or MINI2 or their local clubs existed.

I mean wouldn't it really be something else if MINI included a welcome card on the dash board, saying "Welcome to the community, we like to wave and greet each other, here is how to contact other enthusiasts in your area and around the world." Provide a few of the common websites and a list of the local clubs in the country of purchase.

I know they do welcome kits and the rest but if I wasn't so intent of finding the community I had sort of gotten a hint that it existed I would never have known. I know not everyone is and enthusiast and not everyone would take advantage of it, but I do think there are people who just don't know how great a following the car has and that some would enjoy it if they knew the culture was there.

 

Id' prefer that they continue making and selling cars and keep their mitts off of our community.

Few people here remember that this site originally had another name but had to change it because MINI-USA took legal action against this site. That is proof there that they really don't care much about the commmunity if they felt the need to send their lawyers after a website that did nothing but add to their bottom line by providing this community forum.

 

Yeah, I didn't know NAM existed until one day I googled "MINI Cooper oval door insert" and one of the first links was to this site.

Good point. Pretty odd that MINI USA doesn't provide information about local and national communities.

 

I'm well aware of the MCO days and watching BMW drag some vendors through name changes. I'mnot saying they should be involved in the community (thats what the not visited in years, by me, OL is for) I'm more saying why don't they make the information the community exists available to the motoring public?

With a BMW you get info on BMWCCA before you walk out the door. There isn't nor should there be a MINICCA, but why is it that the community is hidden from new owners?

 

There sorta is, MINI owners are welcome in the BMW CCA. Why shouldn't there be a MINI CCA? Why not have all the local and regional clubs under one umbrella org. Sure makes it easier runnng the local with the paperwork that needs to be done but is handled by a national office. BMW CCA members enjoy a rebate on a new BMW after a year of membership, whats wrong with MINI doing the same. Or the ombudsman that a CCA could offer, or the multitude of perks that come with membership.

 

Drew,

We are doing this on a club level. We will give postcards to the 3 dealers in the area so that they can be put into the glove box. The card will entitle the buyer to the first year of club membership free. Dustin and I have been working on this and we will be giving them to the dealers soon.

 

When picked up my Mini in October, I was given info at the dealer on the local Mini clubs. This lead me to NAM. I appreciate the info being given to me at the dealer. I also prefer that Mini/BMW build cars and let the owners build the clubs.

 

+1

 

Actually the MiniUSA website does have links to NAM and Mini2 as well as many of the Mini clubs in North America. They just do not appear to officially endorse them. However I do believe this website change is rather recent.

 

My MA at our our dealership will offer information on the local scene, waving etiquette etc, to any customer who appears to be interested. However, I imagine the majority of customers are not the "cult type".

 

Our local club is very informal, no dues, no officers, no legalese, no infighting amongst members for power. We are just a group of MINI owners who get together because we actually like each other & we wanna go for a ride or share a meal. I prefer it that way so I would not really be interested in becoming an organization bound by bylaws so we could be part of a MINI CCA but that's just me

Plus, every time I see a parked MINI I leave them a tag card so they will know how to find us as do many of our other locals

 

The MA at my dealership told me to check out NAM and Motoringfile for more information. I already knew about them, but it struck me as a smart thing for him to do. I think it makes sense for MINI and dealers to market these resources to buyers. There's a lot of good information that I couldn't get from a salesperson.

 

A lot of current and prospect MINI customers are not interested in the "community" aspect of the car. For them, this is first and foremost a car. i have 2 co-workers that own MINIs and they have zero interest in the cult aspect of ownership. They love the cars but to them "waving" and belonging to a club is simply an akward concept.

Quite frankly BMW doesnot care about communities. All they care is about selling every car they make and add to their bottom line, enthusiast or not.

 

Our local club is very informal, has dues, has officers, no legalese, no infighting amongst members for power. We are just a group of MINI owners who get together because we actually like each other & we wanna go for a ride or share a meal. In fact the majority of the BMW CCA is the same way. The National org is there to the support the locals, not the other way around. And the national has a better ability to negotiate with vendors and BMW for better pricing for all members. There are a lot of advantages a national club could bring to bear for it's members. As MINI Clubs go Metroplex Mini is pretty darn big with something like 170 some paid members. We jsut had 80 or so for a drive from Dallas or Houston to Waco where we met for lunch.

 

+1
Some of my best MINI experiances have been with SSM, no dues, no officers, no BS just people planning things and doing things where and when they good because of common interest. I also am part of a club that is very different, dues officials, by-laws, maybe a tenth of the quantity of meets roughly the same turn out. I prefer the style and quality of experience of the former. There's more to it than discounts, a rebate for another MINI is no good, as if anyone is on the fence I turn them away from MINI and will not be buying a second one until there are some major changes in the company. And with SSM I got discounts from the local dealers and vendors because of a personal level of business and their knowledge and kindness to the clubs and the loyalty that came from that, not because someone negotiated a sale with the business office. Of course many of the vendors were enthusiasts and club members too.

But alas that is not what this thread is about, there are many MINICCA threads on NAM, feel free to give one a bump or start another one if that is the debate you want.
And those people can take that card and toss it burn it or throw it in the glove box and let the next owner discover it. MINI pre-R56 and BSSP used to have the finer points of waving on their website, and encouraged waving between owners, that is no more as best I could find, and I was looking for it.

From the mouths of the company....

 

I'm in two clubs--HMMS (Houston MINI Motoring Society) and MCOW (MINI Club of The Woodlands). HMMS is large and has formal structure to its meetings. AFAIK, the two dealers in Houston support the club in tangible ways.

As for MCOW, it's very tiny (about 12 members), but MINI of The Woodlands has been very supportive. At times they've opened the dealership early to let us use them as a starting point for a drive, and a few times they've donated raffle presents. I've been very happy with their community support.

 

Some of the local clubs do benefit from local dealer participation on some level but I'd propose that MINI-USA might want to keep groups like NAM at arms-distance while cautiously acknowledging their presence. Why? Probably because NAM has more of loose canons, renegades, rumors, mis-information, drama, and quirks than any corporate identity like MINI could....or should....be expected to become entangled in, much less embraced fully. Two different sets of rules, and I think it is probably best this way. This place has a life of it's own...if I were MINI I'd just look the other way!!!