Rav4 Spare Wheel Cover Stolen

[allarequal]

My wife's spare tire COVER was stolen off her 2002 Rav 4 last month. Is this a common problem ? Had a small padlock on the bottom but that didn't seem to stop the theives.

[Structureboy]

That is quite odd. I'll bet it's just an isolated incident and hopefully that spare tire cover is pretty cheap.

Among RAV4 owners, this is the first time I've heard of people stealing the spare tire cover.
Is this the vinyl spare tire cover, or the hard plastic cover?

[allarequal]

This would be the hard vinyl type.

Costs about $125 to replace.

[JeremyH]

Dont replace it. Seems like a waste of money to me and it will just get stolen again.

[Structureboy]

Uh...yes, do replace it.
Because you will look stupid driving a RAV4 with a missing spare tire cover. It's like if someone stole your rims. You wouldn't drive around with the spare b/c there's that possiblity it might get stolen again.

And, correction on what I said about the theft of RAV4 covers. Apparently, the hard plastic cover type that you have has a blackmarket of itself in Australia...go figure!
Anyways, did they just steal the shell or the entire assembly? Reason I ask is b/c the shell itself I hear is $330. There are also two other pieces, a bracket ($20) and a inner shell piece ($100).

Check on ebay for someone selling a hard spare tire cover. I'm assuming these are also the same people stealing people's covers as well. *sigh*

[Nick]

i wouldn't replace it

[Structureboy]

Okay, why wouldn't you replace it?

[Nick]

cuz its 4-500usd that could be spent on so many other things

so what if you have a wheel hanging out, just get a lock lug so that no one steals the tire

might put a cheap universal fabric one on there (if the wife is nagging)