I am thinking about getting a tdi octavia in the next few months. I'd really like a 4x4 with a 130 bhp tdi but all official 4x4's in this country are petrol.

Are tdi 4x4's available in europe?

If so, will an official skoda dealer service it? I know they are legally obliged to carry out warranty work but they are not obliged to service a parallel import and this car could not be to UK spec as it is not imported here.

OK, don't speak Czech very well (at all in fact), but if you have a look at this :-

http://www.skoda-auto.cz/action/octavianatureii/

on the right hand side it does appear to show 1.9TDi as an engine option, so looks like it's a yes then.

But would you want a LHD one?

Doc, I seem to remember reading on Vortex that the 4x4 TDI was a difficult car to convert to rhd as the TDI bits got in the way of the steering column when converted, that's why they didn't do it first off.

Bets place to look is in Ireland, they have lot's more options than we do. I know on the continent they do TDi L&K specs, so who knows.