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They weigh 3000+ lbs because of their steel monocoque chassis designs. To achieve the increased rigidity standards of today's cars, curb weights HAVE to be high with this type of design. Stamped steel chassis are cheap and quick to produce for a large scale manufacturer, and that's why they continue to be used. Some work is beign done into mass-production aluminum chassis, but even then, the new aluminum Jags don't weigh THAT much less than the old steel ones. The aluminum Audi A8 isn't very much lighter, either, versus a comparable steel car. The whole mass-production process that keeps prices low is very limiting to making low weight, high rigidity chassis. I think Lotus has a great idea with the Elise and its bonded extruded aluminum chassis; it's fairly cheap for low-volume cars and is great with respect to rigidity/weight...but GM will never use that process to make Corvettes, for instance. Not practical for large runs of cars. It also requires high doorsills, which customers don't like in a commuter car. But the single biggest reason why most cars weigh over 3000 pounds is not because of luxury accesories, but the chassis design.
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