Girlfriend's car is hesitating when you step on the gas in idle or driving. But it idles just fine. I’m a pretty good mechanic myself and this feels like a vacuum leak but I did not find any hoses off or loose wires.
Any thoughts on this?

96’ jxi convertible 2.5L
80k mi.

Have you considered a leaky gasket?

sounds like an EGR valve, my 95 sebring lxi has the same problem.