What is the maximum weight recommended in a Prius?

Re curb weight, I didn't want to get overly optimistic. Reason is (from Wikipedia):

"Curb (kerb) weight is the total weight of an automobile with standard equipment, oil, lubricants, coolant, a full tank of fuel and not loaded with either passengers or cargo.

This definition may differ from definitions used by governmental regulatory agencies.

Additionally, organizations may define curb weight with fixed levels of fuel and other variables to equalize the value for the comparison of different vehicles.

It is generally provided as a statistic about automobile weights, along with gross weight and gross vehicle weight rating, which represents the weight of an automobile when fully loaded. The difference between gross weight and curb weight is the total passenger and cargo weight capacity of the vehicle.

Please note that curb weight is different from dry weight."

I have seen it specified with empty tanks, with and without oil, etc. I like to err on the conservative side when it comes to overloading vehicles. I don't know how Transport Canada specs. it so I assumed the worst. Based on reports above from the door sticker it appears it is with a full tank of fuel in this case. So you can carry about 850 lbs, including driver, passengers, and all cargo. Remember to include anything you added to the storage "cubbies" for convienience and safety, such as tire pumps, first aid kits, spare litre of oil, etc.

I was shocked the last time I changed vehicles, to find the stuff I usually carry weighed around 50 lbs.!

 

While 850 pounds may be the 'limit', I'd be very careful with how the car is loaded.

I had about ~450 pounds of top soil in the back of my car this weekend, and I'm sure that if I had hit a pothole I would have done major damage to the car. The back end seemed like it was compressed as low as the shocks could take it (the Prius has shocks in the back, I think)...

 

I bought 10 bales of Promix HP soil, It is about 700 pounds, car seems fine with that but rear end are much lower.

However, I need to buy some mushroom manures, it is about 1/3 yard, If it is not too wet, It weight about 700lbs, Sometime it is very wet and weight more than 1000+ pounds and I am worry about this.

 

Play it safe and make two trips? Probably easier to contain too: full to the gills your more prone to spillage. How far are you going?

 

Nursery is about 15 miles away from my house, I used to do it with Toyota matrix to do it, It has weight limited of 1150 pounds while Prius 2 has weight limited of 850 pounds. I might need to think about this.

 

When I read the title I thought maybe the OP was contemplating a new girlfriend.

 

I've found that driving with any load close to 400lbs really makes the car sluggish. My wife still doesn't understand why I prefer to leave her at home when taking out the Prius.