406oc.co.uk

Hey people.
I think I've got a problem but I'm not sure.
I've only really started driving my 1.8 LX recently. Long story, don't ask. I'm used to my normal car which pulls away from standing very smoothly so like I said, I'm not sure if I have a problem.
Basically I have to over rev the 406 to get it to pull away in 1st smoothly. It idles at around 500-600 revs and when I want to move off I have to take it up to about 1,500 and come off the clutch really slowly otherwise the moment it bites the revs drop to 500 again and then sharply come back up making the car lurch forwards. It's so annoying! Also if I'm holding it on the clutch the rev counter needle will bob up and down slightly even though my foot is not moving.
Is this just how the car is or do I have a glitch

Hows your air filter? Has something crawled into the air intake pipe under the filter? Try moving it with the bonnet up (ie. not far) and the air filter box propped open. If it's still as bad, I'd take a guess at something iffy with the fuelling, perhaps clogged injectors (expensive to have cleaned, more than the car's worth to replace) or a clogged fuel filter (cheap and easy but messy to change)

Is the petrol in the tank mostly fresh or 5 years old?

The filter is fine. I gave it a full service about 3 months ago. I didn't do the fuel filter so that might be worth doing.
The car is constantly driven and has been since it was bought. Fresh petrol all the time.
Sorry, I made it sound like the car has been sitting in a garage for the last couple of years. It hasn’t. It gets used all the time.
I'll try de-cogging the engine, see if that makes a difference. Also, could the exhaust have something to do with it? The exhaust from the mid pipe back was replaced around 3 years ago with a cheep exhaust from German & Swedish. It could be restricting the flow a bit maybe?

Thanks mjb. You've given me some ideas.