Encounters with Stupidity

I was confused about the weight of cars. For a long time, I thought my Subaru weighed about 2800 pounds, significantly less than the 3200 lbs I thought my brother's Prizm weighed. I'm still not sure where I got the 2800# number, because now I can't find it anywhere. A standard place to find the weight of most cars is on the driver's door jamb. This reported weight, given on a stamped sheet of metal or a metallic sticker, is (usually) the GVW, or Gross Vehicle Weight. This number reflects the maximum possible ("safe") weight of the car with a full load of passengers / cargo. If your maxium payload is 1045#, as is the Forester's, the actual approximate weight of the car is the GVW minus the payload. However, there are other things that might count as payload, such as fuel, oil, coolant, etc. Enter the curb weight. So far as I can tell, this is the weight of the vehicle adjacent to a curb, or not, but ready to drive (i.e., with all fluids, with fuel, and ready to go). As far as I'm concerned, that is the real weight of the vehicle. The weight one might use to compare one vehicle to another. The gross weight of a 2004 Forester is about 4150 (I say about for the following reasons: reported vehicle weights sometimes, but don't always, distinguish between an automatic and manual transmission and various trim levels. On the '04 SF, the XS comes with discs in the back, limited-slip in the back, and other different things than the base X model. So don't tell me it weighs exactly the same. Automatics appear to weigh 100+ pounds more, too. End of parentethical remark.) Curb weight of the 04SF-XS: 3105#. Light! For comparison, let's consider a 1995 Honda Accord EX, AT, I4, like the one my (now former) roomates just purchased. It has a curb weight of 2871#. So, my guess it that Ryan's and Dad's Prizms don't weight 3200 pounds each. That is probably the GVW. With a payload of 700 to 800 pounds (as a guess), that means the Prizm probably weighs ~2400#, a few hundred less than the slighter larger and bigger-engined Accord.