sorry to be a dick,
but that's a fucking stupid idea for a first car. no matter what anyone says, you always fuck your first car up by either crashing it, poor maintenance, gluing on ridiculous spoilers or whatever.
by something cheap and beat up, run it for a year then buy something nice.
being a british car, american premium fuel is normal fuel here. it will run ok on shitty fuel if you don't hammer it. if you do then you'll get detonation and fuck your engine up.
He said it was his next car, so I don't think its his first. Also OP, look up in the manual what octane level it needs. Because like joe588 said, american premium is a 93 octane level and may (I'm not sure) be regular fuel in other locations.