Engine Surges

Hi I own a 1996 mitsubishi mirage. It is tiptronic. The problem is that it surges quite badly whilst driving, I cannot even accelerate properly. I took it to a garage and paid hundreds of dollars. On the quote it says they did this. Tuneup, remove and cap and rotor to clean?

This is my first car, it ran fine when I first got it.
Have owned it for about 3 months. I don't tend to drive it in manual. It surges mostly whilst accelerating or going up a hill, not really when cruising along a straight.