IO5040 - yes you are quite correct about the price, I must have had a senior moment. Regarding insurance, I was told that you cannot get insured in the US on the SR22 without an IR.
I am 100.0% certain that is incorrect. Loads of U.S. "rocket ship" owners have only a PPL - they can fly VFR right up to base of Class A which is 18,000 feet, and getting CAS transits out there is generally very easy. A large % of U.S. private pilots have an IR (of the order of 20% - about 20x more than in Europe) but the majority haven't.
Admittedly, to get the best out of this you really need to be up in the airways.
Very true in European airspace.
Also, you have to have the ground course first.
For insurance purposes, yes. American insurers are insisting on various training packages. But legally a normal PPL (UK/JAA or FAA) with a complex/HP signoff is good enough for an SR22.