M3 closed in both directions after ‘multi-vehicle crash' as drivers face long delays
Emergency services, including an air ambulance, raced to the crash site on the M3 in Surrey following the incident.
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The road is closed westbound between J3 (Bagshott Interchange) and J4 (Frimley Interchange).
National Highways have also been forced to close the road heading eastbound too.
That closure stretches between between J3 (Lightwater) and J4 (Frimley).
Traffic is being held in both directions, while emergency services respond to a "multi-vehicle collision".
Huge queues of cars have been spotted, with drivers getting out of their vehicles while they wait.
However, getting out of your vehicle while in a traffic jam can be extremely dangerous and could lead to another accident.
According to National Highways, Surrey Police, Surrey Fire & Rescue and the South East Coast Ambulance Service are all in attendance at the site of the crash.
Also, an Air Ambulance and National Highways Traffic Officers have been dispatched to the scene.
Following the closure, National Highways urged drivers to reconsider their planned routes and to allow for extra journey time.
Drivers have been advised to leave the M3 southbound at Junction 3 to join the A322 dual carriage way.
Then, after following the A30 London Road, drivers can join the A331 before rejoining the M3 once again.
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Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
Alexander Albon: There's nothing I'd do differently at Red Bull
In 2018, George Russell, Lando Norris and Alexander Albon finished first, second and third respectively in the Formula Two championship. The following year, they made their debuts in Formula One. Russell and Norris have since emerged as two of the finest drivers on the grid at Mercedes and McLaren and have 12 race wins and 57 podiums between them. Albon's path has been rougher. The 29-year-old had a tremendous first 12 races for Toro Rosso in his debut year. So good, in fact, that he was chosen by Red Bull to replace the under-performing Pierre Gasly alongside Max Verstappen midway through 2019. Albon fared better than his predecessor in what is surely the toughest job in F1, but was dropped at the end of 2020 after 26 races with the team. After that came a year out of F1, racing touring cars, before returning to the grid with Williams in 2022 when he replaced Mercedes-bound Russell. Since then he has steadily rebuilt his reputation whilst the team have done similar, both rebounding from turbulent times. After 13 rounds of this season Albon has 54 points and nine top-10 finishes. The only men above him in the standings drive either a McLaren, Ferrari, Mercedes or Red Bull. Is this, then, the high point of his time in the sport? 'I'd say so, I think it's my best season,' Albon tells Telegraph Sport. 'We've had quite a few challenging races this year where it's been in mixed conditions as well. I think about Melbourne, Miami, Spa, Silverstone, and we always seem to have been able to get away with good points. 'I am very happy. I don't think it's been such a different year to my other years, more just that the team itself has made a big step forward and I've been able to execute races with good points.' Albon has come a long way since those difficult times at Red Bull. The second seat at that team would be very few drivers' idea of a good time right now. It has been a problem since Daniel Ricciardo left for Renault. This year Liam Lawson lasted two races and incumbent Yuki Tsunoda has finished no higher than 12th since the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in May. All despite Verstappen's persistent brilliance. Does Albon, then, reflect on those 181 points and two podiums across 26 races in a more favourable light now? 'My time there – it's quite difficult to judge. I had 1½ years in the car and it was a difficult car at the time to drive. I was relatively inexperienced for the role, let's say,' he says. 'That's in many ways external as [to] how people view my Red Bull job. 'Realistically it is a difficult seat. You are up against one of the hardest, most talented drivers possibly to ever have been in Formula One. We are lucky that he's here racing on the grid with us now and I was very inexperienced at that time,' he says. Albon is frank about his deficiencies in those seasons, despite a tricky car. In 2020 he scored 105 points to Verstappen's 214. Last season Sergio Pérez, who replaced Albon at Red Bull, scored 152 to champion Verstappen's 437. In fairness, Albon was perhaps a victim of his own success after proving so adaptable and fundamentally quick in that initial stint at Toro Rosso. 'I didn't understand what areas I needed to improve on, whether it was on track, off track, my feedback; the engineering side of Formula One I wasn't up to speed with,' he says. 'You look at it back, it was a massive talking point. I remember my second race in 2020 is kind of what Liam had, people calling for my head and I was finishing P5 and P6 in most of my races,' Albon recalls. 'Now I am far more of a complete package so there's a lot of ifs and buts and maybes of my time at Red Bull. But when I look back at it, there's nothing I could have done differently. Experience is learned, it is not earned. You just have to go through these tough times and understand it, which took time for me.' Time and experience have served Albon well. With 117 grand prix starts he is now able to get the best from the Williams FW47, which is a more predictable and stable beast than its immediate predecessors. In previous seasons, Williams's limitations on certain tracks could make scoring points almost impossible. Albon says that they have managed to 'iron out' some of the negative DNA and characteristics of those cars. This means that he can trust the car he has beneath him more. In 2024 there were just four top-10 finishes. This year he has already had nine, not that he gives any extra validity to his performances. 'A super weekend last year would have been P10, P9. A tough weekend would have been P17, P18. This year it's more like if you have a good weekend it could be a P6, P7, and then a difficult weekend is P11, P12,' he says. 'When I joined Williams in 2022, it was clear to me that the perception of what a good weekend is is totally different to what it is to other people. It took me a while to adjust to it as well. 'A great executed weekend feeling like I am driving well, performing well, could have been a P17, P18, in fact. No one was excited about it – the team wasn't excited about it, I wasn't excited about it.' There is reason to be excited now. This year was always going to be an important one for Albon's reputation. Whilst he has been comfortably the best Williams driver since he joined, the benchmark of his team-mates was not high from 2022 to 2024. First there was Nicholas Latifi and then Logan Sargeant, who both ended up well out of their depth and ultimately out of F1. In 2025 the arrival of Carlos Sainz – a four-time race winner who pushed Charles Leclerc close in their four seasons together at Ferrari – means there is nowhere to hide. So far he has measured up well against the Spaniard, scoring 54 points to 16 and leading 10-6 in qualifying. 'We've been very positive, he's been helping me out even in races like Melbourne, for example,' Albon says of their relationship. When I put it to him that Sainz is having a better season than his results show, he is unsure. Not because he disagrees with the premise, but because it is not something he pays attention to. 'I'm trying to even think about it, but I am so on my own side of my own performance, that it's hard for me to say,' he says. Albon makes it clear that he gives no credence to the perception of his performances or his reputation. Neither does he give any more validity to his performances just because he has scored points. He also pays no attention to the noise that inevitably comes with being an F1 driver. 'I do ignore it – it's not 'try to' ignore. Everything about racing is internal so how you perform and execute a weekend, how you drive, even in terms of pushing the car to the limit and staying in your zone and in your flow state, let's say, it all comes from focusing on yourself. 'Of course, in moments, I will look across the data and, for example, compare with Carlos and figure out where I need to improve as a driver. But for the most part it's just making sure I am delivering the best I can. 'The results, whether it's P5 or a P11 in Bahrain, it's still the same, it's still the same process. I guess you get rewarded differently in terms of a points system, but I still go about my racing in the same way.'
Auto Car
2 hours ago
- Auto Car
Defender Octa vs Ariel Nomad vs Mach-E - one of these amazing mud-pluggers is the ULTIMATE off-road toy
Close The emergence of the dual-purpose, loose-surface-specialist, off-road performance car is one of the better reasons for enthusiastic drivers like us to be cheerful. From the Porsche 911 Dakar and Lamborghini Huracán Sterrato right the way through to the Ford Ranger Raptor and Bowler Bulldog, we've had quite a constant and varied supply of these lovably rogue and madcap mud-pluggers over the past 10 years of car industry history. And now, if you want to go fast and have fun on gravel and mud as well as on the road in 2025, you can do so in all kinds of different ways. Take, for example, the three fast off-roaders we have gathered at the Sweet Lamb Motorsport Complex in Wales for what should be a fantastic day of testing. They are, respectively, appealingly little, usably mid-sized and unapologetically large. Hobbyist, daily driver and indomitable do-it-all. We've got rear-engined rear-wheel drive, all-electric four-wheel drive and V8-engined, proper mechanical four-wheel drive on offer, to suit whatever your requirement. These cars are about as different from each other as anything you're likely to see sharing space in an Autocar comparison test. But all should be great fun on what is ostensibly a gravel rally stage that's ours for the day. At just 715kg, the Ariel Nomad 2 is the kind of flyweight thrill-seeker most would stick on a trailer to transport and use. One towed by something like the 2510kg Land Rover Defender Octa, quite possibly. Could the tow car actually be as much fun as what's towed? Could it get close? Let's see. At 2343kg, meanwhile, the Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally isn't far behind the range-topping Defender on kerb weight, although it comfortably beats it for torque-to-weight ratio and claimed on-asphalt 0-62mph sprinting – not least because it's electric. On wheel travel, any-surface traction and towing capacity? Not so much. So, we have spaceframe construction and motorsport-grade long-travel passive suspension here, up against just about the cleverest and most versatile interlinked active air suspension that a global car manufacturer can come up with. The niche-industry Nomad probably cost less to develop, from clean sheet to finished product, than JLR spent on the Octa's 6D Dynamics interlinked hydraulic damper system alone. Meanwhile, the Mach-E Rally is, on the face of it, just a £2250 option on an existing performance EV. Some retuned dampers, longer coil springs, white-faced alloy wheels, underbody protection panels and Michelin CrossClimate 2 all-season tyres. How serious could that be? Answers to all those questions and more will follow shortly after the nice man in the pick-up truck opens the gate on the steep, rutted and, in places, adversely cambered gravel playground. The bad news for the Defender, and to an extent the Mach-E, is that it's fairly narrow, perhaps twice the width of a Nomad as an average but at points an even tighter squeeze. The surface is sun-baked gravel and dirt, with plumes of drifting dust eddying up from it behind you as you drive, which the spring sunshine hits and beams through like rising flame. It's a 'loose' surface in quite unforgiving terms. The stones across it range in size from smaller than marbles to larger than cigarette packets – and, as stones do, they pile up on the outside of corners, making the grip ebb away just where you need it to come to your aid. There are, in places, channels, holes and gullies to drop wheels into on the inside of those same corners – and not all of them will help you. There's a tight hairpin bend with ruts deep enough to throw you offline and a roughly sheep-sized rock to stop you taking a wide line on entry. There are a couple of faster downhill, off-camber bends that will be unforgiving if you're too quick going in (and, sooner or later in cars like these, you're sure to be). There are sheer drops looming just beyond the margins of the 'road' in places. And there's a jump. Of course there is. It's going to be something of a leveller, this place. Commitment will be needed to get very far into fourth gear even on the quickest stretches, so I'm not sure how much use 626bhp will be to the Land Rover, or even 480bhp to the Ford. Accessible torque should go a long way, though, but only if it's matched by proper gravel traction and stopping power. Cars of many parts The Defender Octa is the kind of big, heavy car that can take some serious punishment. You arrive in it at a place like Sweet Lamb, with its tracks, fields, streams and climbs in every direction, with not a flicker of unease. That's partly because your journey has already been so remarkably pleasant. The Octa takes to on-road motorway and A-road miles with very little compromise whatsoever to its rolling refinement associated with its beefed-up running gear – and big-hitting overtaking pace when you need it. But it's also because this car's sheer rough-stuff capability is exceptional. We've had a dry winter, so it happens that the ford you have to cross to gain access to The Mile Loop is at a low level on the day of our test, and all three cars can cross it easily. But if it had been 18in deeper? The Defender – with its 1000mm wading depth – would simply have had the fun all to itself, and the Nomad might have ended up somewhere a lot farther downstream in the Wye Valley. Getting to where you want to be in order to enjoy yourself in fairly remote places like this, and carrying with you what you will need when you get there, is a significant part of the equation when assessing how much fun these cars can provide in the broadest of senses. And on all of that stuff, the Defender has a mighty head start when you stop to think about it. Are usability and capability – or, rather, the want of them – significant hurdles for the electric Ford? In some ways, I'd say so – but not all. The Mach-E GT wasn't the most efficient EV you could spend £70,000 on before Ford jacked up the ride height by 20mm and fitted those all-season tyres to it. As the Rally, it will do a little over 210 miles as a touring electric range, which meant it arrived at our Welsh rallying idyll with about 75% battery capacity showing, with the nearest rapid charger a good 25 miles away. Focuses the mind, that. I won't be ruining the verdict, however, to tell you that the Mach-E survives a fairly long day's off-road use, with a couple of leadfoots taking plenty of entertainment from it, and leaves at the end with more than enough range remaining to guarantee its onward progression. As a very basic test of the primary usability of an EV made with this sort of driving in mind, I reckon that's valid: and the Mach-E Rally passes it. But, at all points, we keep a wary eye on that range meter, in a way we simply don't need to with the fossil-fuelled alternatives, and perhaps have just a little less outright fun as a result. On a more normal day, of course, the Mach-E Rally is still a car you could get all manner of profitable, zero-emissions use out of. It's practical but not huge; fast, alternative and interesting to drive but not a six-figure buying prospect. Suited to the school run, supermarket shop, office commute and football practice. It has five doors, five usable seats and Ford-typical real-world appeal baked right in. Need we point out that the Nomad, er, doesn't? I doubt it, because it's the kind of car you take giant helpings of enjoyment from on the more limited occasions you have to drive it, not the other way around. The one with the green frame that Ariel brought to Sweet Lamb for us has Perspex side protection to stop the breeze billowing up your trouser legs so much, as well as a canvas roof as rain protection. You expect to finish driving it by removing so much dust from your various facial orifices, but it actually shelters you from all that fairly well. Hit a water splash in it at pace, though, and… you get wet. But generally, it doesn't throw enough dirt into the cockpit to make you wish you had packed ski goggles or to make it a mission to clean up afterwards. The Nomad may be the kind of car you would only really ever seek to have fun in, but what fun it is. You can have one with a rally-style hydraulic handbrake fitted if you want (as our test car has), in addition to the optional winch, roof-mounted headlights and gorgeous Öhlins TTX suspension – and, trust me, you should. Onto the gravel we go, then. In descending order, 534lb ft of torque per tonne in the Ariel plays 271lb ft in the Ford and only 235lb ft in the Octa. Even there, you can start to see the enormous difference that the Nomad's lightness makes. But the proper all-terrain tyres of the Nomad and Octa will have an impact, too, versus the more road-intended rubber of the Mach-E, while peak torque at revs isn't the same thing as accessible torque right under your big toe, right at the wheel where you need it most. Is your idea of a fun gravel driving experience something pointy, drifty and responsive, which rotates freely as you turn it in and 'gas it up'? Whose cornering attitude can be adjusted with power as quickly and easily as a flick of your ankle and roll of your wrists? S omething that powers away from 50mph corners with a real surge of urgency and a carefree wiggle of its hips? Well, you might be surprised just how well the Mach-E Rally fits the bill. Being electric might actually make it more fun than it would otherwise be here. It's lively and responsive to the controls at speeds that don't make you fear for what's waiting on the other side of the grass verge. The bigger, more stable, more under-control-feeling Octa isn't quite so lively. That's partly a function of grip and partly of size. It has loads of grip on gravel, its Goodyear Wrangler Duratrac all-terrain tyres chewing through the surface scree and making it ready to pull bigger speeds than the confines of this circuit really allow something of its sheer size. It feels a bit like a monster truck on a Race of Champions stadium circuit. The Mach-E's all-season Michelins get to about 50mph, by contrast, and then start to skate around on the top layer of stones, their tread blocks failing to clear the rubble they're bombarded with, and allowing the chassis' naturally more expressive tendencies to start to become a liability. So driving the Ford on gravel is a kind of quick-quick-slow progression; you will have a blast, provided you don't go too fast. In the tighter bends, there's nothing the Defender's posh active suspension can really do, by comparison, about the more languid chassis responses of a bigger, taller, heavier car, but the Mach-E feels much lower, keener and more willing to be teased into a positive cornering attitude than the Land Rover, which only really wants to tuck its nose in under trail-braking (although it will certainly do it). Both cars are fun. The Defender is leagues tougher and more capable and would come into its own on a quicker, wider gravel track, I'd wager. But here and now and in a corner of the Powys countryside that seems to suit it peculiarly well, the Ford is actually the more addictive driver's car. And then you get into the Nomad and it's like you're in another place altogether and engaged in an interactive physical act of a different order of magnitude. The Octa ultimately goes perhaps 10-15% further than a regular Defender for entertainment factor but still trades squarely on its assured feel. It can only make so much room to really entertain you without the risk of bursting that safe, silver-lined bubble. The Mach-E goes further still, but its ultimate lack of grip, ground clearance and damping authority would make you fear for it if tougher, quicker surfaces and tests presented. But the Nomad simply yums it all up, lets you feel every little deflection and work for every correction, and puts itself on a different plane of motoring existence in the process. It is enormous, monumental fun. It's a test of nerve to begin with, though, and a huge change of tone. Because suddenly every channel, bump, ridge, rock and camber gets right through to your fingertips and backside. The Defender was filtering them out, mostly, although you didn't know it; the Ford only hinting at them. But the Nomad broadcasts them right into your forearms and shoulders. Lots of physical effort is involved in getting on its level and armfuls of corrective lock require plenty of fast dexterity. But it gives back what you put in and more, with its incredible, oh-so-faithful handling. On 16in wheels and chunkily sidewalled Yokohama all-terrain tyres, it finds plenty of grip and traction on the gravel but still demands a much closer watching brief before you can let all 382lb ft loose through the rear wheels without a bodily reaction. The steering communicates tirelessly, so you know without doubt when you're on a good line and, very clearly, when you're not. Get wide, get lazy, turn in in the wrong gear or fluff your lines with the pedals and you will have plenty to sort out. But drive well and you can take pretty much whatever line and angle through a third-gear, 50mph corner you want to and feel every move the chassis makes. And the most awe-inspiring move is when it takes to the air. The jump on the Mile Loop isn't a desperately quick one, but it is quite steep and severe. You wouldn't risk what damage the Defender's bulk could do to itself by jumping it there; even less the not-as-well-damped, shorter-travel Mach-E. But the Nomad takes it like some magic flying La-Z-Boy armchair. It vaults like a gazelle but, thanks to that Öhlins suspension and its modest weight, comes back down to earth in a more comfortable, matter-of-fact way than you would ever believe possible. And so you line it up again, just to check it wasn't a fluke. The same way you do once you've found the perfect line through that tricky off-camber corner. And you don't stop until you're blowing and grinning in gloriously equal measure. Cars this compelling may not play by the rules, but they're absolutely worth making room, time, occasion and effort for. The Nomad vividly proves that if you really want to have fun off road, committing fully and putting the effort in truly pays off – and it does it in singularly superb fashion. The Result 1st. Ariel Nomad 2 Has neither usability nor capability to worry about and feels superbly, vividly liberated as a result. Fun on the loose like just about nothing else. 2nd. Ford Mustang Mach-E Rally A simple, direct and surprisingly effective way to enjoy yourself on gravel, although it lacks some toughness, stamina and true capability. 3rd. Land Rover Defender Octa Would get you to almost anywhere there is fun to be had and with plenty of entertaining flourish. Needs a big canvas to really impress as a driver's car, though. Join our WhatsApp community and be the first to read about the latest news and reviews wowing the car world. Our community is the best, easiest and most direct place to tap into the minds of Autocar, and if you join you'll also be treated to unique WhatsApp content. You can leave at any time after joining - check our full privacy policy here. Next Prev In partnership with
Times
3 hours ago
- Times
How drivers were sold a car finance compensation fantasy
Britain has narrowly avoided a costly car finance compensation free-for-all after a landmark court ruling derailed chances of a payout for millions of drivers. Claims lawyers had been bombarding consumers with adverts suggesting they may have been entitled to thousands of pounds in a scandal over hidden commission on car finance deals. The scandal had been expected to rival the mis-selling of payment protection insurance, which cost banks more than £38 billion. It was thought that nearly 15 million drivers could be entitled to payouts worth as much as £44 billion in total — although Friday's Supreme Court ruling means the numbers are set to be far smaller. Questions have now been raised over whether those using car finance really lost out and how many of them deserve compensation at all. The chancellor, Rachel Reeves, had tried to intervene ahead of the ruling — arguing that a colossal compensation bill for the industry would damage the economy and consumers. The Supreme Court ruled on three cases where consumers bought cars on finance and argued that they had been treated unfairly because they had not been told about commission involved in their deals — which ranged from £183 to £1,651. The court rejected two of the three cases, but upheld a complaint by Marcus Johnson, a factory worker from south Wales — because in his case the £1,651 commission in his loan was 55 per cent of the fee (including interest) on his loan over five years. 'The fact that the undisclosed commission was so high is a powerful indication that the relationship between Mr Johnson and the lender was unfair,' the court's judgment said. It leaves the door open to claims for compensation on deals that contained large amounts of commission, or where the commission model influenced what they paid. How much would be needed for a deal to be unfair is something that is likely to be decided by the City regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), which said it would confirm if it would introduce a redress scheme before stock markets open on Monday morning. The FCA had been investigating finance deals that had used a model called discretionary commission, which incentivised dealers to give customers a worse interest rate on their loan. However, a judgment by the Court of Appeal last October opened the door to compensation claims by millions of motorists who had bought cars on finance, regardless of the commission model. Lenders appealed to the Supreme Court over the ruling. About nine in ten cars are bought on finance and £39.7 billion was borrowed on more than two million cars in the year to May, according to the Finance and Leasing Association, a trade body. The Court of Appeal had ruled in October that car dealers had a duty to make clear the nature and value of any commission paid to them to ensure that borrowers could give 'informed consent' before agreeing to a deal. Reeves was among those concerned about a claims free-for-all, with the Treasury reportedly drawing up contingency plans to shield lenders from having to pay out billions of pounds in compensation. The Treasury attempted to intervene in the Supreme Court case, arguing that a ruling had 'the potential to adversely affect the United Kingdom's reputation as a place to do business, with a consequent impact on economic growth'. In the meantime complaints about car loans to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), a body that solves disputes, have risen from 4,130 in the first three months of 2023-24 to 37,230 in the last three months of 2024-25. Most of these have been brought by claims companies and no-win, no-fee law firms that file complaints on behalf of consumers in return for up to 30 per cent of any compensation. These companies have swamped radio, social media and television with adverts that tell consumers they could be owed thousands of pounds. On Thursday the FCA said it had required 224 adverts from claims firms about car finance to either be taken down or changed. There had been highly speculative figures advertised for how much consumers could get back, it said, including compensation figures that did not make clear they covered multiple car loans and misleading claims that refunds were guaranteed. It said companies had been signing up consumers without their consent after they clicked on adverts. Philip Salter, a former FCA regulator now at the consultancy Sicsic Advisory, said: 'I haven't liked a lot of the claims company advertising. You've had a lot of companies arguing that time is running out, but the clock hasn't even started. It's been a bit of an unseemly scramble.' • Common sense has triumphed over compensation culture If there is to be compensation for consumers, it is expected that the FCA will announce a free redress scheme where lenders will contact those eligible, meaning consumers should not need to use a claims company. Gary Greenwood from the investment bank Shore Capital said: 'It's one of those things where if you go by the letter of the law of the previous Court of Appeal judgment, you're almost coming to the conclusion that commission is bad. But the problem is that if you look at the reality of what had happened, there doesn't seem to have been a lot of consumer harm that's gone on. 'So any sort of redress has got to come down to: has there been any consumer harm here, or are people just trying to claim money back on a technicality?' Greenwood said. Charlie Nunn, the chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group, which runs Britain's biggest car finance lender, Black Horse, has denied the scandal was on the same level as PPI. 'Some 80 per cent of people need finance to buy a new car, and a large number of second-hand car buyers do as well,' he told The Times in January. 'We need a well-functioning motor finance industry that supports consumers.' The National Franchised Dealers Association, a trade body, told the Supreme Court that 'nobody goes to a car dealer with a reasonable expectation that it is acting without self-interest in relation to any of the products it sells'. The Supreme Court's judgment could have been the difference between lenders facing a compensation bill of £11 billion — for complaints about a specific form of commission — and £29 billion, according to Royal Bank of Canada Capital Markets, an investment bank. It could also have led to compensation claims about the sale of other financial products such as insurance where commission was involved but not properly disclosed. Consumers in turn could have had to foot the bill. Stuart Masson, the editor of the advice website The Car Expert UK, said that if lenders have to pay compensation to millions of people, car finance could get more expensive in the future as the industry tries to 'claw back' that money. 'That's not money they're going to find down the back of the sofa,' he told the BBC. 'They're going to have to get that back from increasing the costs of future lending, which won't just be on car finance. It could be on credit cards, it could be on personal loans, it could be on mortgages.' In January Reeves told bankers at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland: 'There is nothing pro-consumer about making it harder for people to buy an affordable car for their family.' Before the courts widened the scope of possible mis-selling, the FCA had been investigating a specific model of commission called discretionary commission. This is where the cut that lenders paid dealers was linked to the interest rate consumers were charged, incentivising dealers to charge borrowers more. This model was used in about 35 per cent of car finance deals, according to the FCA, before it banned the practice in January 2021. The FCA said consumers could have paid about £1,100 more in interest over a four-year £10,000 car finance deal because of this commission model — which is being used as the basis for many of the estimates around possible compensation. Salter, who worked on the ban when he was at the FCA, said: 'That previous Court of Appeal ruling surprised me. I think everyone knows that if they're buying a car the salesman's getting commission, don't they? But discretionary commission never felt right to me.' The FCA began its investigation in January last year on whether consumers had been properly told about the link between their repayments and the commission. The investigation was kicked off by two rulings by the ombudsman against Lloyds and Barclays last year, which ordered the banks to refund two consumers more than £1,000 each. The FCA is expected to set out its next steps, including whether there will be a redress scheme, within six weeks. Any scheme would be free and easy for consumers to use, it said, while the FOS is also free for consumers to appeal to. Rob Lilley-Jones from the consumer group Which? said: 'It's vital that finance firms are held accountable for mis-selling and if a large number of motorists are eligible for compensation consumers are likely to be bombarded with ads from claims firms offering to take on their case. 'Affected customers should be careful when enlisting the services of claims management companies as the wrong choice could lead to their case being poorly handled, losing a significant portion of the compensation in legal fees — or both.' Coby Benson from the law firm Bott & Co, which helped win the ombudsman's case against Lloyds, said the experience from PPI was that consumers could sometimes recover more money by going to court than through a redress scheme. He said: 'We would support a proactive redress scheme if it fairly compensated consumers. But we have doubts over the effective implementation of a scheme, because our data shows that about half of clients have a different address now to that which the lender had from the time of the agreement.'
