If you previously owned large capacity non-turbo cars (such as a V8 or large six-cylinder) you might notice that some newer, smaller-engined cars with turbochargers don’t always have the urgency you remember when pulling into traffic or leaving a green light. That said, turbo motors are less laggy than they’ve ever been thanks to new technology and lighter turbocharger internals, but they can still feel as though they’re taking a second to really get going when you put your foot down. But they shouldn’t make you feel like you’re putting your life in danger every time you try to merge into traffic.

Which means you may have a problem with your car or, depending on your expectations, maybe not. Car dealers have a bit of a reputation of delivering the old “they all do that, sir” line when confronting dissatisfied owners, but you don’t need to leave it at that.

You can ask for a written report showing the car’s boost graph and compare that with what the factory says the car should deliver. But an even simpler way is to find somebody else with the same make and model and ask if you can drive the two back-to-back. Perhaps the dealer has a mechanically identical car on their used-car lot that you could take for a test drive. If your car is noticeably slower to launch than the other, then you may have a mechanical or even a software fault that is affecting performance.

The other thing to remember here is that (unless you bought a manual version) your car has a dual-clutch transmission and these can also sometimes feel a bit slow to get cracking when you launch them. Again, the performance of the transmission should be able to be electronically checked and verified, so don’t rule that out, either.

You could be looking at a couple of problems here. Either there’s a recurring problem with the car that is causing the check-engine light to illuminate, or the problem was fixed at one of the four previous service appointments, but the service team has consistently failed to zero (reset) the warning light.

In most cases, these check-engine lights are cancelled via the on-board scanning process which, coincidentally, would also tell you if there’s a constant problem forcing the check-engine warning to light up. Either way, it’s back to the workshop for an electronic vehicle scan to rule out the latter and/or reset the former.

Dual-clutch transmissions continue to haunt some manufacturers with poor reliability and short lifespans. I’m not going to categorically say that your gearbox is showing signs of premature wear, but the symptoms you’ve listed – harsh shifting, engagement delays and general harshness – are classic signs that a dual-clutch is not well.

There are many causes of this; wear in the clutch packs can cause shuddering and harsh shifting, while worn internals and iffy electronics can cause delays in the unit selecting gears. Either way, it’s straight back to the dealer for your car, but at least it’s still within the factory warranty period, so it shouldn’t cost you a cent to have it put right.

This type of transmission works beautifully when it’s in tip-top condition, but – speaking very generally – they have been known to give problems early in life and some manufacturers have moved away from this tech to a more conventional style of automatic transmission.