Vehicle specifications seem simple enough. After all, scales and tape measures provide numbers that would appear to required no interpretation. And yet, for at least two major specifications, there are enough hard to explain anomalies in the official numbers that they cannot be readily trusted.

TrueDelta does not include curb weight when listing specs. Why not? Because in too many cases they’re clearly wrong. A manufacturer will swap in an entirely new powertrian, but this spec will stay the same. Or nothing about the car will change, but the official curb weight will change by over 100 pounds. Or you’ll find much different specs on the U.S. and Canadian sites, when the standard features are virtually (or even totally) identical.

As a result, I have very little faith in official curb weight figures and would rather provide no information than bad information. A shame, because I have been doing the work to enter the numbers into the database.

I should probably do the same with cargo volume. There are so many ways to measure it that you really should not compare figures across manufacturers. How far should the front seats be reclined? Should you measure length and width at floor level, or at some other height?

I once sat in on a discussion inside GM where they discussed which method to use. The method they usually used would yield 20 fewer cubic feet than the figure Chrysler was using for its vehicle. Huge difference.