I recently purchased a 2012 (non-S) Hatchback with low mileage. I love it so far. The only problem that I found, after taking two 1.5 hour commutes, is that the car seems to accelerate very slowly.

After stopping at traffic light, I need to depress the pedal hard to make the car accelerate at a similar speed as most other cars on the road do. The tachometer will go up to about 3.5. The enging makes loud, pushing noise. It feels like the car is begging for more power to start.

When on highway, sometimes when I try to accelerate, the car won't respond for about 5 seconds. Then the tachometer will go swiftly from 2.5 to 4, and the car accelerates.

I am a soft driver and usually don't depress the gas pedal very hard. I'm not sure if that's why the car doesn't accelerate as smoothly as other brands do. I'm hoping this is an inherent characteristic of the car and does not indicate any major problem. No indicator lights light up so far.

I know very little about cars and don't know if this is something I should worry about. Thoughts?

 

Since you have a '12, and if you're under 50k miles, you might have some warranty left. If so, have a dealer mess with it. Otherwise, without a code thrown, it's anyones guess..

 

I'll ask the hard questions...

What type of service history do you have? Have you been a regular for proper maintenance?

I find that in most cases if you visit your service department of your favorite shop, if you express your concerns with your service adviser or actual mechanic let them know what you are experiencing they can drive the car and feel it, and if so it may be as simply has resetting the adaptive setting variables that your car learns as you drive. (they do this by connecting their diagnostics equipment to your car and through the GUI (Graphic user Interface) they can reset your ECM (Electronic Control Module or Engine Control Module).

But by looking at these things, it is possible the Tech can determine why you are suffering from reduced performance. They can look at the raw data coming from all the sensors and in doing so use that to determine if there are any real issues.

Motor on!

 

Non turbos are slow. How low is low mileage? It's possible you have bad spark plugs or the high pressure fuel pump are going, but both of those should cause a check engine light. If you have the service history you should check if the thermostat has been replaced.

 

Thanks for all the replies.

Unfortunately I didn't ask for service history when I first got the car (lessons learned!). It was a 3 year old car with less than 6k miles on it. It was listed as a personal lease return, but it was really a car the dealer used as a replacement for customers whose cars had to sit in the service lot overnight.

When I asked the question above, my car was running on 89 octane (gas station running out of 93 that day), but I've switched to 93 ever since. That seemed to enhance the performance, especially on highway.
As a separate note, the car averaged over 39 mpg with about 10% local and 90% highway mileage. I'm pretty satisfied with that.

The only problem now is when I drive at 10-15 miles per hour, the car doesn't go very smoothly. It staggers a little, feeling like I constantly switch between the gas and break pedals.

I'll bring it back to the dealer later to see if there's anything they can improve. Will update when I get back.

 

are you driving with the AC on? car throttle at low speed acts funny sometimes with the AC on. otherwise, maybe clutch?