I know our cars are rediculously heavy, and I was wondering WHY? it's a mid-size 2-door...is it made out of forged iron? I can't physically pinpoint what's so heavy. I just know whatever it is, it's slowing me down. *ponders fiberglassing all the panels* If they're anything that i can do to lose a hundred pounds...that's a start. but even a hundred pounds is a big jump for weight reduction. *sigh*

 

It's pretty easy really. First thing I would do is remove the spare tire and everything in the trunk to where you see just the metal. Then I would remove the back seats, the backrest are the heavy items, then replace the doors or just remove all the power things and go with manual window and locks, then replace your power seat (if you have it) with a manual seat. If you've ever removed the driver's power seat and passenger's manual seat , you'd see how heavy the driver's seat really is. If that's not enough, you can remove all the sound deadner that lines every bit of the cabin's panels.
Weigh your car before and after though.
Here's a breakdown of parts in an Eclipse which is only 50-75lbs heavier than our cars...to keep it simple, referrence the 420a Eclipse and 420a Avengers with the same trims.

*Scratch the breakdown of the parts weights. The link that had it all is gone*

 

that's a good bit of help. however i don't know if i want to get rid of my spare tire. i'd hate to be stuck somewhere with no transportation. and backseats...i use those err.....regularly, so i'd like to keep those for sure i've got the manual seats already, so that's a head start. but i'm sure my sub/box/amp evens them back out. but anyways i don't know if i want to sacrifice my power windows either. how much can they possibly weigh?

i was more concentrated on other things...i mean every car is going to have seats, backseats, power windows, spare tires/etc...i really just want to know makes our cars so heavy compared to other cars of a similar size.

 

What cars are you referring to? The newer Mustangs are around the 3300 mark. If you're talking about Hondas...they are just lighter, why do you think that the owners think that they have "fast" cars in stock form? lol. Anyway, it has a lot to do with the exterior styling also. To make curves on a body panel, you have to have more metal, which in turn adds more weight. The older mustangs weighed in at 2834 and that's the hatchbacks (foxbody's of course). They don't have the curves of a 2G Eclipse/Talon or Avenger/Sebring. Just note that more metal, more weight, lol. Sleek cars are bound to weight less (if you were to weight just the unibody) than curvy cars. It almost relates to people....the more curves a person has, the more they weigh
The V6 makes the car heavier up front too. Again, the 2G Eclipse only weighs slightly less (match the trims first) and they are also a tad shorter in wheelbase. Don't go by the overall size, go by the overall metal.

You know what? The last time I was in a hail storm in Louisisana, my car sat next to a 2dr Honda Civic coupe. I ended up with a tiny handful of dings while the Civic looked like swiss cheese. Apparently, our cars have thicker metal too or our cars use a different type of sheetmetal.

 

dont 4get that we have a baby 2.5.....not even a 3.0 like the stratus's

 

hah well i guess i can't complain. i'd rather crash in my car than something made out of cardboard.

 

IMO weight reduction is for serious street racers. Along wiht all the power stuff, spare tire and back seats you would have 2 get rid of your air bags also, them hoes weigh alot well passegner side anyways. And dog leta PROFFESSIONAL do that! Lets just say curiosity almost broke this cats neck. And those light weight racing seats they sell really numb your A$$ expecially with lowered springs and 1' of rubber on your tires. Even Beyonce would have a problem. As far as the crash thing I heard that there is a saying "Its not how fast your going its how fast u stop" I guess since our cars are longer than a Civic they had to design it to be stronger, cuz they figure if a car is that long it will weigh more meaning if pushed down a hill it whill travel faster than a lighter car.

Oh yeah I seen this BMW of sum british show, I forgot the name they test drive stuff and give you their opinion on it, the floor boards were cardboard the windows where sum light weight idk and I think the hood doors and trunk here painted Carbon fiber. Fast car real nice lookin wanted an arm and a leg for it but you hit anything above 4o she'll crumble.