European Car News

Long-term update: Our Range Rover gets new keys made

Long-term update: Our Range Rover gets new keys made


Back in the early 1990s, you could get a car key duplicated at any regular key-cutting shop for Dhs 10 and be happy in the knowledge that you’ll always have an unlimited supply of cheap keys for your car. Then the late 90s brought with it the new-fangled transponder-chip anti-theft technologies that could not be duplicated, and the only place to get copies was from the dealer, after a month-long wait to get it shipped from the factory and after going into debt to pay for it. Then we recently heard that half the key-cutting shops in Dubai can now duplicate any key in half an hour.

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So we got a 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI

So we got a 2014 Volkswagen Golf GTI


We drove the redesigned VW Golf recently and found it to be a pretty good car. Of course, around here, nobody cares about the regular Golf. With a huge chunk of Golf sales, up to 50% by some sources, in our region accounted for by just the pricier GTI, it’s obvious from the start that the latest GTI was a hotly-anticipated car this summer.

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So we bought a Jaguar XK

So we bought a Jaguar XK


We wanted to fill our personal fleet up with cool cars. That means our trusty Renault Safrane will eventually move on to a good home by the end of the summer. The replacement had to cleanly fall between our Honda S2000 and our Range Rover in terms of size, drive and cargo-carrying practicality. We thought of all sorts of cars, including Minis, Chargers, Alfas, Evoques, 3-Series, GTIs and what not. Then I woke up last week and had a sudden urge to buy a Jaguar XK. So I did.

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Minerva resurfaces with 400 kph J.M.Brabazon supercar

Minerva resurfaces with 400 kph J.M.Brabazon supercar


They may not be the most familiar carmakers in town, and chances are, you may not know them either. But automotive manufacturer ‘Minerva’ was founded in the fall of 1897 by a gentleman named Sylvain De Jong. And, as the story goes, after building more than 50,000 passenger cars in the early 20th century, with names such as Type C, Type D and Type E, the company shut its doors in 1956. However, they’ve decided not to be dug into the graves of history, and after more than 50 years of dust, the company has been revived. Hence, they say that the company has “risen again from the ashes”,

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