I'm not in a position to advise as to what it might be, but did a test drive not cross your mind ?

Apart from that, it should still be under warranty, so take it in to a dealer - UNLESS, that is, the last owner hasn't bothered getting it serviced. In which case, it might be out of warranty, and about to cost you money to get fixed.

Looks like non-turbo one has the same GDI engine as the Kia Ceed. We tried one of those last year when we changed cars.

Away from the lights it seemed OK providing you revved the engine hard but once out on the open road you really had to plan overtaking manouvers. From memory peak torque is at 5000 rpm and peak power is at 6000 rpm. To get decent performance you need to use the gears and keep it between these figures. Hard work on the driver and passenger and hard work on the fuel consumption.

Find your comment about the Nissan Micra interesting. We had a 1.2 and dad currently has a 1.2. Performance in town is definitely better in the Micra, the Ceed was possibly better out of town when you ragged it.

But why did you not spot this on your test drive?

RobP's comment about servicing is interesting. Was it serviced at 12 months old even though it would have only done a small mileage. If not there will be no warranty on the car.

You haven't come back to a NA petrol after owning a turboDiesel perchance.

Totally different techniques needed to get the best out of them, the engine revs you change up in a typical Diesel are about half those when many petrols are just starting to produce some power.

Its the one thing i dislike about 4 cyl petrols especially, always sound abused and rough as hell when pushed, the same revs in a 6 or 8 pot and things are just getting interesting and the sound becoming addictive...but then i hate most 4 cyl engines of any fuel unless they happen to be Subaru flat fours or inline with 750cc or more per cyl.

edit, it might benefit from a serious Italian tune up for few hundred miles.

Edited by gordonbennet on 31/08/2014 at 20:13

Two turbos? don't blame you getting shot, thats usually the case with Fords fitted with Pugs 1.6D.

On the subject of lungs, have a quick dismantle of the air intake and check the air filter whilst in there (maybe blow down the air intake from the filter end with something), just to make sure something hasn't got sucked in and restricting breathing, might be a family of mice in there given the mileage.