My car is a 1991 Ford Escort. I've had it for a good 4-5 months. When we got it, it was in great shape. The tires were brand new, it had only 40,000 miles on it, and it ran really well.
When I first started driving it, I noticed that it hesitated a bit when I took off from a complete stop.. but it didn't seem too bad, so I thought it was just my car.. nothing I could really do about it and it didn't bother me. It only did it once when I took off.
Now it's so bad. It hesitates and jerks and stuff. I don't know, it's kinda hard to explain. It does it three or four times now before I take off. My dad is a mechanic, but even he doesn't know exactly what's wrong with it yet. He was talking about changing the transmission fuel, but idk if that had anything to do with it.
My car is drivable, nothing is wrong with it aside from that.. After I take off and it does it's thing, it's fine.

??

Welcome to owning an 18-year-old Ford. It sounds like the transmission. For now if you must drive it I suggest accelerating as lightly as possible. Checking the fluid sounds like a good idea, though if that's what your dad thinks it is and he's a mechanic I'm perplexed as to why he hasn't changed it yet, or at least checked it to see if it needed it.