I have an E280 V6 petrol engine Avantgarde (in England)

The gearbox has started to give a 'kick' each time it changes gear - especially changing up. In addition, the pullaway from stationary is sometimes sluggish. Once up and running at speed it generally feels fine but trying to accelerate hard can sometimes be sluggish and occasionally I feel that under hard acce;eration the gearchanging is 'sticking' in a gear when changing up instead of changing to the next gear. The vehicle has done about 160,000 miles mostly on motorways ('freeways' for you guys in the States)

Any ideas anyone?

Scrottocks