Just bought a new Fiesta 1.6 tdci econetic and whilst the ride and handling are good, the vehicle seems to struggle at 10 mph in second, at 20 in third and at 30 in fourth. For city driving, this means I'm barely getting up to fourth and almost have to change down to 1st to take a fairly standard turn. I know the gears are spaced to offer economy rather than performance but I don't remember the econetic I took for a test drive behaving like this. Does the car have a problem, will it settle down or are these just engine characteristics that I 'm going to have to get used to? I thought some of you on hear might know. Any feedback much appreciated.

Hi John.

All I have noticed with mine is that at 30 it's better off in 4th.

I have had a bit of jerk sometimes when putting the power on which seems to be getting better with the miles (only 600 so far).

Thanks David

I have a bit of a jerk when putting the power down as well

As you say, maybe these things will smooth over with a few miles on the clock

My ZS is much the same, I can hold 30mph in 5th though and around 22 in 4th, usually at just ~ 1,000rpm.

Labouring the engine is not the way to improve mpg.

It's the way to ruin it thats for sure.

Low RPM and high load = no oil pressure and lots of highly stressed engine components.

Pretty sure the engine has enough oil pressure the rest of the time when the poor thing's being floored :P