Hi Frank,
I don't know if it is a characteristic, I somehow doubt it, the fault happened overnight prior to that it was super smooth.
It could be clutch related - I bought the car from a Mitsubishi main dealer 87,000 genuine miles they fitted a clutch kit and DMF, within a week or so the release bearing was squeaking , I took it back, they adjusted the pedal and managed to stop the squeak for 50 miles or so, I learned to live with it, within 1500 miles it was slipping !
They said it would be caused by bad driving skills !
(I should add it is not my driving style my audi has done 200.000 on the original clutch
My dads landrover has had no clutch issues and I am regularly towing a stock trailer with two layers of sheep and can reverse it as easily as going forward so I am not riding the clutch)
After some wrangling It was replaced under warranty by local toyota main dealer who found the slave cylinder was seized and replaced that so that all made sense and all seemed fine for another 6 months then it started slipping when towing our 1970s royale caravan.
I phoned them they suggested the caravan was too heavy !! And if they found any fault other than the parts they had replaced I would be charged £105 per hour they suggested I got my local garage to diagnose it
They found there was no free play and readjusted the pedal
This solved the problem I took the caravan up some very steep hills no problems
It all seemed fine until it suddenly became difficult to get into 3rd and 4th ,
Tried changing the oil, no improvement
The car is now with a very well respected mechanic
The box is now out again the clutch looks ok but we are going to replace it anyway, the fork seemed to have a lot of play so we thought that was the issue but having ordered a replacement fork and bush it seems that has quite a bit of play anyway
The box may be ok and it could have been a clutch issue but it would be worth an expert having a look before it goes back in,
Finding an expert is the issue and in the wrong hands it could be worse !!
I have done a bit of googling and found David Beaumont 4x4 gearboxes in Halifax who on the face of it look good
Does anyone have experience of their work ?