I bought a new 1.6 TDCi 115 Grand C-Max a week ago, and the performance is extremely poor compared to my old 1.8 TDCi C-Max.

1st gear is extremely short, with huge turbo lag. It's very difficult to get going smoothly. It seems to have an extremely narrow rev range - below 2000 revs it has no pull at all. 2nd Gear is not much better, and 3rd gets bogged down very easily. It makes driving up hills and getting out of junctions very tricky. On the whole it feels laggy and unresponsive, like the car is deliberately holding back. I realise the Grand is a bigger, heavier car than my old C-Max, but I would have thought performance should be better than this.

It has improved somewhat over the last week (350 miles done) - maybe due to me getting used to the very short 1st gear, and maybe due to the engine loosening up.

I see that some other owners of the new 1.6TDCi engined Fords have complained of similar issues. I'm wondering if this is just the way these new diesels drive due to the emissions regs, or if there is something wrong with the car. Anyone else experienced anything like it?

I'm going to go back to the dealer today to express my concerns, and shall be contacting Ford to do the same.

Edited by Ravenger on 07/01/2012 at 10:23