I viewed a five-month old 2010 Vauxhall Zafira Ecoflex Elite at a Vauxhall dealer. During a test drive the salesman informed me that the car had "traction control". I agreed to buy the car and to collect if the following week. In the meantime, having visited various websites including Vauxhall's, I could find no confirming reference to this car having traction control (TC). When I went to collect the car I asked the salesman again about the TC and both he and his manager went out to inspect the car and on return confirmed that it did have TC. I accepted the car.

In the recent icy weather the car showed no signs of having any sort of traction control, so I e-mailed Vauxhall, the result of which was that they said that this model did NOT have traction control. I forwarded the e-mail to my dealer who admitted their mistake. They have offered a full refund on the car. If I accept this, I will be without a car (my old Omega which they took as a trade-in has been disposed of), and the whole exercise has cost me a certain amount of money. Is it unreasonable for me to want compensation and if so, how much?

I have offered to buy a brand new Zafira (which now has the feature as standard) from the dealer, although I would expect a heavy discount but as yet, have not had a response. Would this be reasonable?

I don't believe the dealer deliberately mislead me but Vauxhall seems to change the spec so frequently that it must be hard to keep up. I only replace my cars every 11 or 12 years, so I am unsure what to reasonably expect from a dealer, but I do need to have the right car for the next 12 years.