Avis Car Sales / AutoNation False Advertising?

What started off to be a simple test drive of a 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport offered by Avis Car Sales (which is actually run by mega car dealer, AutoNation) turned into an exercise in futility for me and a lesson learned about trusting online listings by these two companies. Bottom line, I made a special trip to test drive a vehicle that was not as advertised on their website. Now the boring details.

Avis Car Sales listing for 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport - 3/1/16

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listing

Here's a listing I just pulled down today from Avis Car Sales. The screen captures show a 2015 Hyundai Santa Fe Sport with All Wheel Drive (AWD). Looking through the specifications, you'll note the vehicle has Leather Seats and Turn-by-Turn Navigation. The only Santa Fe Sport with those features is one step up from the base model. Leather seating also means you get a 6-way power driver's seat since that's the only way Hyundai builds them. Sounds good right?

Leather Seats

There are currently four other Santa Fe Sports with these specs as well.

So I booked a test drive online for Avis' rental office in Escondido, CA. (NOTE: The test drive I booked was not for the specific car shown here but for one with the same specs.)

My test drive was Sunday, February 28. At 11:00 am, I dutifully showed up at the Avis office (which is a 15-mile drive from my house and about 30-minutes in traffic). First, the office was closed with a "Be Back Soon" sign posted. After 15 minutes, a guy drove up, opened the office and we proceeded to fill out the rental paperwork (about 10 minutes) with my credit card & driver's license. We head into Avis garage where the Santa Fe is sitting.

Navigation

I open the door and guess what? No navigation system, no leather seats, no power driver's seat and I realize I'm looking at a base model Santa Fe Sport.

Being very hacked off, I told the clerk it wasn't what I signed up to drive. He says nothing he can do, "cars sales are handled by Auto Nation" and asks if I still want to test drive it. Uh no. So back we go into the office to spend another 10 minutes cancelling out the rental. The guy then says he has NEVER seen an Avis Santa Fe Sport with nav or leather.

When I got back home, I immediately called Avis Car Sales on their national line to find out what happened. It rolled to voice mail so I left a detailed message. Monday morning, a rep named Brooke called to ask how my test drive had gone. No mention of her call being from my voicemail so it was obviously just a programmed sales follow-up. I explained how either their listing was wrong or they provided the wrong car and that I didn't actually test drive the car.

While she was apologetic, the upshot was, yes, I got the car I reserved and after checking, the listing was wrong. Brooke also said the other Santa Fe Sports showing leather & nav did not have them either and she would take the issue to management.

Today, I got another follow-up call from Avis /Auto Nation. Again, it was a programmed call simply to ask how my test drive went and was I interested in the car. "Uh no, see the notes about the car being listed wrong." This second person says they'll report it to management.

So it's late Tuesday afternoon and all those Santa Fe's are still listed wrong. Now if Auto Nation had take care of correcting the listings promptly, I might say, yeah it's an honest mistake. But the fact that they haven't says to me either they don't think they have to or they are deliberately overstating vehicle features.

Anyone else have this problem?