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Thanks a lot for the replies.
Re my situation: Unfortunately have to do the test and get a new license (after 16 years of driving and 10 of actually owning a car and commuting every single day). My license (Colombian) is no good here. Taking lessons again just to make sure that I pass the test and get used to driving on the wrong side of the road and such :P
Unfortunately this will mean that as far as insurers are concerned, I will be a new driver (ditto for car rental companies, hence the reason why probably the only option to drive in the UK will be to buy a car, at least for the first year). I have gone into these comparison sites (comparethemarket.com, confused.com, etc.) and they've quoted me (32 year old married man, living in London, working as a consultant, to use the car on weekends and leaving it on a garage) around £1,200-£1,600 paying the year up front for comprehensive cover. I assume that if that's the quote I get, that's the price I'll pay and there won't be any surprises afterwards....
As for the car, I had indeed heard these comments about the VW 1.9 TDi engine (in all its incarnations) hence why I was looking at that one. Actually, now that you mention it, I was in Budapest a month ago and we took a Taxi (VW Jetta I think with a TDI) with 450.000km on the clock. Quite impressive. The Octavia does sound like a sensible option although, should I expect differences in MPG because of the size?
Re. Adam43, I have also given some thought about the justification behind the diesel vs the petrol hence why I was also considering a Mk 5 VW Golf 1.6FSI, but then again, I heard the stories of diesels being more reliable than petrol engines.
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