Singular vs plural

Hola Mike M.

You're right that "la agencia" is singular, so it might seem that it should be followed by "tiene" instead of "tienen".

However, in this case, the verb "tienen" doesn’t refer directly to "la agencia" as a singular entity, but rather to an implied plural subject—namely, the people working at the agency.

In Spanish, it’s quite common to shift the focus from an organization to the people behind it, especially when talking about services. So "tienen coches" is interpreted as "they (the staff) have cars", even though the previous sentence mentioned "la agencia".

This is similar to how in English we might say, "The team have arrived" when thinking of the individuals in the team rather than the group as a single unit. This is not poor usage, but a natural and accepted structure in spoken and informal Spanish, where context and intent can influence grammatical agreement.

Saludos

Silvia