We troubleshoot YOUR commute
 How much could our commuter save in running costs? 10 September 2008 We’ve set ourselves the challenge to reduce one commuter’s spending habits – join us for the first in a series of features and see how much money he’ll save. Nick King is a 45-year-old analyst who commutes to London each day. He’s sick of paying too much for his motoring – and we’re here to help. Over the next few weeks we’ll look at ways to drive his costs down – and you’ll have the chance for us to troubleshoot YOUR commute. View our slide show of Nick and his car
How far is the commute? Nick drives from Bromley to Wimbledon each day – a 25-mile round trip. “If leave at 6am I can get to work in half an hour, but if I leave after 7 it’s a nightmare – it can take almost two hours,” Nick says. How much does he spend? Around £60-£70 per week on fuel – this can increase to more than £100 if his car needs servicing, washing or a new part fitted. What car does he drive? His automatic BMW 325 isn’t the most fuel-efficient car in the world, making it a greater challenge to cut Nick’s fuel consumption. BMW claims it can run for a combined mileage of 39.8mpg – 29.1mpg in town and 50.4mpg on motorways. Nick’s current combined mileage is 28.8mpg – so there’s plenty of work to do. “I usually reach 28 miles per gallon on average, so it’ll be interesting to see if Auto Trader can improve this,” he said. How will he save money? We’ve given Nick a spending to log to fill in this week. Every time he fills up his tank, has a new part fitted or spends anything on his car, it’ll be recorded. At the end of the week we’ll see where his money is going – and if he’s paying too much. Is he driving efficiently? Could he get cheaper car insurance? Next week we’ll teach him some money-saving secrets and expert driving techniques that’ll make his fuel last twice as long. What we’ll check The cost of Nick’s motoring will be split into the following sections: • Fuel At the end of the week his spending in each area will be added and analysed. Where will most of his money go? Stay tuned and find out. What if he doesn’t save money? We may make some suggestions to drastically alter his lifestyle – this could be a new car, different type of fuel or alternate route. Come back next week to see if any of our emergency suggestions were necessary. Video: Meet Nick and his car Find out why Nick King wants to cut his car costs:
You need Flash Player 8 or higher to view video content with the ROO Flash Player. Click here to download and install it. Come back next week to see how much Nick spends – and what we’ll do to help. Want us to cut YOUR car costs? Email editorial@autotrader.co.uk with ‘cut car costs’ as the subject. View our slide show of Nick and his car How do you save money on your motoring? Have your say on the Auto Trader Blog |
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TROUBLESHOOT YOUR COMMUTE
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