Context: The CoRoT short runs give us the opportunity to observe a large variety of late-type stars through their solar-like oscillations. We report observations of the star HD 175726 that lasted for 27 days during the first short run of the mission. The time series reveals a high-activity signal and the power spectrum presents an excess due to solar-like oscillations with a low signal-to-noise ratio. Aims: Our aim is to identify the most efficient tools to extract as much information as possible from the power density spectrum. Methods: The most productive method appears to be the autocorrelation of the time series, calculated as the spectrum of the filtered spectrum. This method is efficient, very rapid computationally, and will be useful for the analysis of other targets, observed with CoRoT or with forthcoming missions such as Kepler and Plato. Results: The mean large separation has been measured to be 97.2±0.5 μHz, slightly below the expected value determined from solar scaling laws. We also show strong evidence for variation of the large separation with frequency. The bolometric mode amplitude is only 1.7±0.25 ppm for radial modes, which is 1.7 times less than expected. Due to the low signal-to-noise ratio, mode identification is not possible for the available data set of HD 175726. The CoRoT space mission, launched on 2006 December 27, was developed and is operated by the CNES, with participation of the Science Programs of ESA, ESAs RSSD, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Germany and Spain.