We had booked an intermediate (Dodge Avenger or similar) for our three week vacation. When we wanted to claim the car at the JFK airpot location, we were told that the the only intermediate left was a Beetle. If we wanted a car that was big enough for the four of us (two adults, two small kids), we had to pay for an upgrade to the next category.

Only after a long argument and after pointing the representative to the description of the category that stated that the car would seat five and have space for three pieces of luggage, another intermediate was "just checked in". We received a Chevy Cruze which was fine for our purposes. The lot looked full, BTW.

Has this happened to anyone else? Is there really a risk that the size of the car is completely unrelated to the category booked?