Dave & Anne Sitter - Member Profile

Dave & Anne Sitter

Anne & Dave

Meet Dave and Anne Sitter, NorCal Mini Club Directors, and their Mini Cooper Family:

Dave has always been a car guy his entire life – he is a lifelong career employee of the automotive industry. He’s owned many cars through the years including a few Fords, VWs, 2 Hondas and a Mitsubishi. He’s had trucks, cars, SUVs…. He’s also owned 3 Harley Davidson motorcycles and a Honda. His passion has always been in the automotive and motorcycle arena. A Corvette is still on Dave’s bucket list…….

For Anne, cars were simply a mode to get from point A to point B. Animals and animal welfare have always been, and continue to be, her passion. As a teen she shared a VW Dasher with her brother. She bought a Ford Escort and then a Mitsubishi Mirage later in her early 20’s. However, after seeing a beautiful red Ferrari convertible on the streets of Pasadena in 1978, her dream car became a red convertible Ferrari. With Ferrari being just a dollar or two out of her price range, when the long-awaited chance came in 2000 to purchase her “red convertible” she bought a red, 2000, Mitsubishi Spyder with all the bells and whistles, electric top, black leather interior…. She was single. It was a dude magnet. Other than that car, other cars were simply “a way to get me from here to there”.

Dave and Anne met in late 2003 and in early 2004 they combined their families of cars and animals into one household that included a Ford Expedition, Mitsubishi Mirage, Honda Civic, Mitsubishi Spyder and a 2000 Harley Davidson Wide Glide…. Plus, a total of 3 dogs and 5 cats. They married in December 2004 and each spouse officially adopted the other spouse’s “kids”.

There were a few other cars and more Harley Davidsons in between the time they met and the time they joined the Global Mini Cooper Family. However, the Sitters bought their first Mini Cooper in 2017 because Dave wanted a good, reliable, small commute car that could be easily parked at his office. Parking is a premium at the dealership and finding a spot can often be challenging. Anne was reluctant since she had no knowledge of Mini Coopers; She was also still angry because she had to get rid of her red, convertible hotrod a year prior. She had been firm on “it has to be a soft top!” because she was still pouting. One day Dave sent Anne a photo of the 2013 Mini Cooper soft top he found at Mini in Santa Clara. Because Anne loved convertibles and knew Dave really wanted a Mini Cooper, she agreed. They bought him in March 2017 and named him Ringo.

Once they joined NorCal Minis Anne started seeing different kinds of Mini Coopers on the monthly organized runs. Finally, she decided she wanted a Mini Countryman to call her own. She and Dave researched for several months, upwards of about a year, and then started looking. Having never had heated seats before, she was determined to make that a “must have” on her Countryman because Ringo’s seats were so warm when the heaters were on. It’s the little things…. No seat heaters, no purchase. She and Dave finally purchased a pretty, silver, 2015 Countryman they named Sterling in June 2018. Once he was home, Anne realized that, while the heated seats were A-MAZING…. her favorite part of part of Sterling wasn’t his heated seats or his beautiful silver paint that hid dirt so well…. It was the fact that he sported a handsome “Hidden Mickey” (Disneyland fans will get it) right on his dashboard in the form of his speedometer and heating vents.

Sterling is often used for long drives to LA to visit family and Disneyland, while Ringo is a warm weather, top down, commuter car for Dave. The Sitter’s COVID19 quarantine conversations have included talk of “what is our next Cooper… JCW? Electric??” and they both have done a little google surfing on what is out there. For now, they will be keeping Ringo and Sterling in the family and will be rotating them on runs depending on where the run is heading. Sometimes they ask each car which one wants to partake and have found, interestingly, that the boys do work together to figure out which one is best for upcoming runs.

This time away from the club physically has been a bummer but The Sitters, Ringo and Sterling are looking forward to the day when we can motor again as a club. The Cooper Boys are missing their Mini cousins and we are missing our Mini Family. In the meantime, stay safe and healthy, but keep on motoring.