Thanks for your advice - it's interesting to hear your view on the car. That's been the main problem with organising the trip. My original plan was to buy but then I talked myself out of it for fear of being ripped off (for being English!!!), having the car break down half way across the country and paying a load to get it fixed and also sorting out ownership and insurance without having a permanent residence.

These points put me off, but like you say it could work out cheaper, PLUS I could sell it on at the end.

I would really appreciate any guidelines you could give me about the whole car situation as it would help me enormously! (As long as it's not too much trouble!)

Thanks