Was in a town yesterday and when I parked I noticed one of the conditions on the board – “No vehicles over1560kg unladen” (think that’s right)

That rules out half the cars on the road nowadays dunnit?

I think the likes of Astras and Golfs come in at over 1500Kg!

Rules out both our cars.

Yep – many hatches now weight more than 1500kgs. Every modern saloon I know does too.

I’d love to know how they could enforce it. I’ve no idea how much any of my cars have weighed; I’ve never towed anything so never needed to.

206 estate is 1300kg (with a 2L diesel lump in the front)

Yes hard to enforce, maybe bodybuilder attendents with calibrated arms?
Everyone moans about the state of the roads but if cars are always getting heavier than perhaps it is to be expected.
New discovery is 2800kg afaik !

I would presume that they simply have a list of weights and go round putting penalty notices on the ones over the list. I imagine they would say if the sign is there and you choose to ignore it because youre not sure, really isn’t their problem.

Evil but genius.

Rachel

1700kg for me, 535i

And unladen – surely thats’ irrelevent?

Not in Richmond was it?

it’s probably to stop vans and campers being parked.

It’s really only big 4×4’s that exceed that as an unladen weight.

br – is yours an E34?

Can’t believe astras and golfs weigh that much, no wonder they’re slow as ****! My impreza comes in at under 1400kg

The Focus is one of the worst – the RS is very heavy indeed.

Surprised about the RS what with all that plastic on it 😉

Ace, apparently my Scirocco is 1379kg “unladen”, although I think that manufacturers need to include the weight of an average driver and a 90% fuel tank in that figure? (VW brochure seems to suggest so).

I weigh bugger all, so I’m off to do doughnuts in this car park. Anyone got directions?

The Scirocco figure would seem to suggest that some Golfs would sneak under the limit too.

Just looked up the book weight of my old AX – 632kg! No wonder it felt much lighter than my Polo, and substantially faster 🙁

You won’t do so well if you crash into anything in your AX though. 😯

Ah but Rick, the AX had a large enough hole in the floor to allow you to give it some Fred Flinstone as well!!! 😉

And unladen – surely thats’ irrelevent?

No, it’s not. An unladen weight implies they are trying to stop commercial vehicles. I’m wondering if they’ve had problems with dumping or fly tipping in the past? The average transit tipper is around 2.1t unladen, and I reckon that’s what they’re aiming at myself

You won’t do so well if you crash into anything in your AX though

Meh. Follow that logic and we’d all drive tanks. Or those things which make Hummers look small. But yes, it would have been ended in any crash.

Ah but Rick, the AX had a large enough hole in the floor to allow you to give it some Fred Flinstone as well!!!

Git! I’ll have you know that car was pretty quick. 1.4 with none of that fancy computery nonsense to bog you down. What is it that you drive again? A popemobile?

Just did a google and my Octavia comes in at 1330kg. I’m ok then. 8)

Always surprised how few know what their car weighs. Bet most here could estimate their bike to +- 1kg 🙂
Why is it rarely published?

Its not that long ago that an ordinary family car was under a tonne.

Its adding more gadgets and more speed = bigger wheels and brakes – bigger engine to drive it all etc. etc.

before you know it you have a bunch of lardy cars

Teh sooner we go to carbon tax the better – cos not only is all this parasitic weight causing decrease in fuel consumption ( it takes more energy to accelerate it) but there is an environmental penalty in the manufacture of the car as well

You are all going to claim its about safety – only to a very limited extent – the extra strength does not mean 50% more weight

What did an original golf weigh? 800kg – now – 1.3 tonnes

Just did a google and my Octavia comes in at 1330kg. I’m ok then.

I’d be fairly safe betting it actually weighs more like 50-100kg more than that.

That’ll be a theoretical dry weight, for a start….. And just have a think how much fluid is in your car: fuel, oil, coolant, battery acid, washer fluid. And I bet they remove the spare wheel and tookit too….

I work on a weighbridge. I know the truth! 🙂

I agree TJ! But people likeneed their toys; air con, multi-adjustable seats, electric everything, sat nav, ICE, *cough* side impact bars…

Give me a stupidly simple, lightweight car any day!

TJ – actually safety is THE biggest factor in weight gain.

Much stronger chassis structures, crumple zones, airbags and all the electrics needed (most cars have 6 or more), etc.

But yes – I think the technology IS there to concentrate harder on lighter weight and that is a much better CO2 reducer than just cleaner engines. Look at the Lotus Elise – nippy but tiny CO2 emitter.

BM 335d Touring – just under 1700kgs
Landy 110 Defender – just over 2000kgs. They’ve always been heavy though even without any safety kit. They STILL have no airbags!

Weight fail…

1445Kg for my Golf estate, but I suspect PPs logic applies there too 🙂

But only 109g CO2 and 60ish MPG though, so heavy but not uneconomical

Do the safety tests assume you will be hit by progessively heavier cars though?
You know ‘car park weight limit’ is not a well searched phrase when your own thread is the top result 45 mins after posting it 😉

E39, Matt

And in comparison – no wonder my 405Mi16 was quick, only 1180kg

And my 309GTI only 930kg

Surf-Mat – Member

TJ – actually safety is THE biggest factor in weight gain.
No it is not

You can have a high ncap car that is not heavy, a golf has increased from 800 – 1300 kgs – that’s not all in safety features

Cars get bigger and more full of gadgets so need bigger wheels brakes drive-train. thus because of the greater weight the safety cell has to be stronger thus heavier.

Its the law of diminishing returns but are you really trying to tell me that in 20 years a golf has 500 kg of extra safety equipment?

My car’s 990kg all in…

TJ – your argument has many holes.

Have you actually looked at a mk1 and a mk6 golf side by side. They might have the same name but they are fundamentally differently sized cars. Your argument might stand more ground if you were to focus of folks wanting a bigger car to do the same job from 20yrs ago. Looking at like for like performance models and I wouldn’t be surprised if the mk1 had higher emissions than the modern day counterpart despite the weight so it ain’t all bad.

Better comparison :-
my clio 197 weighs 1240kg with all the extras
clio 197 cup version is exactly the same car which has most of the extras stripped out so out go most of the airbags, air con, keyless entry, nice heavy duty plastics for dashboard, wheel jack, and in goes fancy lightweight seats. – 1204kg

36kg difference.

Then look at the Clio 182 cup – the previous generation of racy Clio with exactly the same “extras” as the 197 cup version above, exactly the same engine and virtually identical brakes but the previous chassis and shell which was mainly changed for the 197 to meet new safety expectations and weighted 1021kg. Bear in mind these are cars trying to have the best power/weight ratio they can – they would not have increased the weight unless they really had to.

So the nice to haves on the 197 made 36kg difference whilst the safety improvements between the 182 and 197 cup made 183kg difference.

You say safety improvements but was the new clio bigger as well?
I would say expectations for legroom, width & boot space have increased too.
You are right to say the latest golf is hardly comparable to the mk1. But people will say ‘ I always drive a golf’ so in relative terms they think they’ve always had a compact car. In absolute terms they’ve doubled the mass!
As long as the mpg stays about the same they dont notice.

The Clio III is physically bigger on the outside than the Clio II but very little of this has to do with legroom or cabin space – the majority has been the increase in size needed for crumple zones at the front and aft of the car.

I have no idea how much my car weighs. It’s red though if that helps?

Eek – there are some lardy cars out there! My Multipla is only 1370Kg

br – less bhp and the same torque as my old R32 Golf then…;-)
Same torque as my diesel Astra had too.

TJ – safety and the demand for roomier cars. But mostly safety.

Oops

the weights are normally shown on a plate or sticker on the vehicle somewhere, sometimes on the tyre pressure label

the 3 weights are:
kerb – empty or unladen. sometimes with some fuel
gvm – gross vehicle mass – maximum the car is allowed to weigh with all the passengers and luggage and so on
gtm – gross train mass – maximum the car is allowed to weigh including a trailer

Tell you what, I’ll take the car in tomorrow and slap it on the weighbridge. Then we can see the real numbers! 🙂

It’s really only big 4×4’s that exceed that as an unladen weight.

No it’s not, not even close.

Always surprised how few know what their car weighs. Bet most here could estimate their bike to +- 1kg
Why is it rarely published?

It’s published on every car on the road, on its VIN plate?

Incidentally I’ve had my car on the weighbridge and it weighs about 50kg less than the plate says.