I don't know what vehicles you guys are driving but even my old Seat cordoba is able to accelerate faster with the 1st than the vehicles in arma 3. ^^
It's a litte bit annoying when you try to escape with the vehicle from an enemy and you notice that you would be faster on foot...
Also the sound of the engine has a massiv problem. I don't know what it is but I think it is the sync with the speed of the vehicle that is bugged and when you shift from different gears.
Get a vehicle (in real life) and try to accelerate with the first gear and then compare in arma 3.
Does your SEAT come with armor? Its weight is roughly 1 ton, while the Hunter's is about 12-15 tons. Can't really compare those imho.
All the cars feel like some sort of Reeaally weak electric car.
They all have almost constant acceleration with no real difference between the gears. If I press E which is roughly the equivalent of "pedal to the metal" I want to feel the thing really jump away.
I agree, the sound makes me think something is wrong with the ATV. And it is fairly slow at take off. It just doesn't excite me like it should.
We are very sorry, this issue was closed as no-bug. Vehicles are still work in progress.