I had a late 1990s Audi wagon (A4) and eventually replaced it with the most comparable late 2010s Audi, which was a small crossover (Q3). Ignoring performance specs, my wagon could have compared to a late 1970s Volvo wagon I used to see all over California. The internet tells me the curb weight of the Audi wagon was 3350 lbs, the crossover is 3690 lbs, and the old Volvo would be around 2760 lbs.

When the crossover was in the shop, I was given a Mustang rental because the shop was out of normal loaner cars. I had no real experience with them, and was shocked that the Mustang felt larger and much harder to park than my crossover despite the compromised interior. So it is interesting to me that you quote such a high curb weight too.

I don't quite understand it. The "density" of cars seems to vary and yet they all have similar mass. It really does make me wonder how much it is engineering necessity versus some kind of weird regulatory mess where the engineers are targeting certain weight classes in spite of very different packaging.