Car slowly losing power over time?

[Auroboros]

Just bought the game so I'm not sure if any part maintenance beyond the first cleaning is a thing. I've got a fully cleaned/polished VW Bug with the stock, air-cooled engine. the oil and fuel aren't mixed with anything and are both filled. Everything inside the car is locked down in baskets. It ran fine for ~175 kilometers easily reaching speeds up to 90mph uphill. At some point after the 175km mark, it's suddenly slowed down significantly. It cannot go go faster than 50mph on flat roads and hills are almost impossible unless crawling up them in first gear. Is there a degradation system I'm missing?

[Agarillobob]

do you have to much load maybe?, I´m not sure how exaclty it works but the car might be overlaoded

[Vulgar Saint]

You're going up hills and sometimes the grade increase is almost impossible to notice.

[Mondian]

Bit of necro, but did you ever figure this out? I'm in the VW caddy and noticed the same thing. No change in the car or what I was hauling in the back and suddenly it would speed up to 30kph and then maybe build up to 60ish on a flat surface. After filling up some cans at a water tower I found I could not even make it up the incline of the road anymore. I literally came to a complete stop and started rolling backwards going full throttle. At first I thought, ok, maybe too much weight? So I threw the water over the edge and went back to my original weight of a crate of food + a half full barrel of diesel and.... yeah nothing. Still stuck on this road. Fuel full, oil full, coolant full. Its nighttime, so I can't imagine its overheating.

[Mondian]

Well, after systematically removing everything on the car and checking to make sure nothing was awkwardly stuck to the bottom I discovered the culprit:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920767373

This doll hanging off the rearview has more negative impact on engine power than 100L of liquid does.

[Auroboros]

Wait seriously? I had that hanging in my beetle too. That's really the cause? I can't test since I've already dumped the VW.

[Mondian]

Yuuuup. I don't know if its a bug or a joke that hanging that up makes you drive like a babushka but it's definitely the culprit. And it only affects you when its hanging up, I just tossed it down on the passenger seat to test and I drove around just fine. I did hurl it off a cliff shortly thereafter though

[Maviba]

For the beetle it's probably the weak engine HP.
It's got ~20-30 HP only so good luck in ckimbing hils or even mountains with that if loaded with loot

[Borko]

Originally posted by Mondian:

Well, after systematically removing everything on the car and checking to make sure nothing was awkwardly stuck to the bottom I discovered the culprit:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2920767373

This doll hanging off the rearview has more negative impact on engine power than 100L of liquid does.

Just want to say thanks even though this is a year old. I was really struggling to figure out why my Plymouth maxed out at 30 and wouldn't go faster no matter what. As soon as I removed that same doll, it immediately shot up to 70.