Like thousands of UK motorists who drive to work, our commuter Nick King is burdened with a higher cost of running his car.

We take a look at how much he spent this week – and what we can do to help.

View our slide show of Nick and his car

Last week we asked Nick what he drives and how far his commute is – this week we’ve recorded how much he spends on his car.

Spending totals

We gave Nick a spending to log to fill in every time he forked out for his car. Here’s where the money went:

Monday 8 September
• Fuel – £15 (Tesco in Bromley)

Tuesday 9 September
• N/A

Wednesday 10 September
• N/A

Thursday 11 September
• Fuel – £61 (Tesco in Bromley)

Friday 12 September
• Breakfast in a service station – £7.10
• The Times newspaper from service station – 80p

Total spending – week one: £83.90

Nick reckons he spends about £60 per week – but this week he paid out almost £25 more. His total cost excludes the following:

• Car insurance – £465
• Tax – £210
• MOT – £50

If we take these annual expenses into account, his weekly car costs would be £97.80.

But with the right advice Nick can drive this down to as little as £60. Come back next week to see what we can do to help him reach this target.

Fuel efficiency

The BMW usually runs for 28mpg – but this week it reached an average of 30mpg.

Our work is going to be cut out if we’re to improve this further. Find out if we manage to increase Nick’s fuel efficiency next week.

Are YOU spending too much on YOUR commute?

Auto Trader is looking for motorists who are spending too much on their car – are YOU one of them? Want to slash your motoring bill by up to half?

Email editorial@autotrader.co.uk with ‘Cut my car costs!’ as the subject and you could be featured on the website.

Video: Meet Nick and his car

Find out why Nick wants to cut his car costs:

Come back next week to see us teach Nick some money-saving secrets.

View our slide show of Nick and his car

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