2005 Ford Focus - Manual smells like burnt plastic

My daughters manual shift car doesn’t always accelerate in first and seems sluggish, it smells like faint Burnt plastic and the motor seems too hot. I think it’s the catalytic converter…what do you think?

Could be. Is the CEL on?

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Could be a slipping clutch. That would make the car feel sluggish on takeoff and cause the engine to work harder. Have a good independent shop look at it.

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