mirage 1.5 starts bad and surges

hi all

i have a 97 mirage 1.5 ltr. that has two issues i believe may be related.

first, about 70% of the time, i will go to start it and it sputters so bad it sounds like it's only running on 2 cylinders. (not exagerating), and if i pump the gas pedal several times it stops doing it and won't do it again until the next cold re-start. the other 30% of the time it starts normally.

second, the car always has a slight surge to it, in all ranges of speed.

here is list of stuff i've changed without making any difference to these problems:
wires, plugs, air filter, cap, rotor, cleaned out throttle flap with spray, run injecter cleaner through tank several times, timing belts

do these vehicles have a choke of some kind?

thanks for any help

xclr8