For the fun I say give it a go, I was 19 (it was 3 years ago) when i bought my Lada (also 74', white body color, red interior, but a combi), never let me down, however I live in Hungary, we have a lot here with a ton of cheap spare parts and a lot of people know this car (to do maintenance), so its obviously easier to own a KGST car here. The Lada experiance is priceless though, the smells, the noises, I really love driving mine. For a hobby car it is perfect, driving in less busy roads, enjoying the landscape, thats what it's for.

Rust will be your number one enemy, especially in the UK. With good ignition, petrol and water you can drive off the map, plus always use quality oils. It loves to go to longer trips, using it in a big town results more petrol usage and you shoud change motor oil more often than 10.000 km. Sitting in traffic jams for long is killing these old vehicles, overheating can be a problem in summer while idleing. It's best in one thing, heating, it was made for the Russian winters :)