Of course.

Note the "cold engine" light.
Let it warm up until that turns away (120F), it will act very choppy and rough until it's at operating temp (183F).

It's harmful to push a cold engine. Very easy to damage things while the spacing is all weird and oil is not flowing properly.

 

I never have hesitation at startup. Always runs fantastic, in the morning and rain it's kind of hard to get traction.

 

Reread OP; this isn't about actual startup hesitation, it's about acceleration hesitation after a cold start.

100% normal. Occurs on everything with an engine.

 

When I start up my car in the evening after it has been parked outside for 8-10 hours, I do notice when I press down on the gas pedal like I normally do, it isn't accelerating as fast. I figured this is happening because my car and the engine is extremely cold and never thought much of it. It really makes logical sense since it starts behaving normally after driving for 10-15 minutes.

 

I'm wondering if it's electronically limited too. I don't really push my car during cold so I have not received any difference in 1 year I've owned this car.

 

Possibly, I don't think it matters much...it is only preventing damage from occurring to the engine.

 

I have experienced the same thing when the car is sort of "cold" when accelerating.

I don't have a "cold engine" light. Where would that be? At the bottom of the display next to the Cruise light? How do we know if the engine is warm enough? There is no gauge or indicator for engine/oil temp like in most cars. Does the 3 have one?

Harry

 

It's a blue oil light that comes up in the center gauge, like you can see in this photo. I have the sGT with the big tach and it appears in the same gauge but slightly different position.

I didn't notice it in the early fall, but now that it's cold outside it stays on for a few miles.

 

It's actually the coolant light which is blue. It's a rudimentary temp indicator. The blue is annoying but it should be on for several minutes while the engine is still below temp. No light means good. If it starts to get hot the same light will blink red, and if it's solid red that is well and truly overheated.

Would rather have a damn gauge myself.

This light should be hard to miss within the round center gauge. If you don't notice a blue coolant light when you first start the car, something may be wrong. Or you are mistaking it for the high beams, LOL. Or maybe you don't have one if you're not in the US, but I thought this was pretty universal now.

You should be gentler with any car while this light is on, or otherwise for the first several minutes. Until it gets to operating temp. If it's another car that has a gauge, you can use that as your, well, gauge.

 

Hence why it's called the "cold engine light"

You aren't missing much though; the gen1 coolant temp gauges are about as useful as the cold and hot lights that show up on the new models.

On the gen1 gauge any temperature between 135-220 looks visually "similar" anything below or above is obvious.

Aka, it shows when it's hot, when it's "right", and when it's cold lol

 

I'm shocked that there's people here who actually think their car will perform the same when the engine is cold. Like Srsly?

I've seen kids seize up their motors because they start revving the piss out of a cold engine. Notice how the idle is higher when it's cold? Yeah it does that for a reason. Good idea to wait for the rpm's to start dropping before putting the car into gear.