There Is An Answer To The Toyota RAV4’s Most Baffling Question And I Have It

I know I generally tend to ignore the most popular cars out there in the world, but in my defense, I can’t help it! They’re usually boring as watching paint on a patch of drywall in a long-term records storage facility dry. And the Toyota RAV4, one of the best-selling cars here in America, is generally in that category of cars that I respect but don’t really think about very often. Well, I like the first-gen ragtop ones, but you hardly ever see those around anymore. What I do like, though, are really mundane mysteries, and the third-generation Toyota RAV4 has one: what is the proper orientation of the spare tire cover?

Yes, that’s right, I’m talking about the plastic cover that goes over the 2006-2012 RAV4’s externally mounted spare. This cover has a roughly boomerang-shaped molded-in bit of decoration on it, and the orientation of this shaped divot in the plastic is something that, if you look at all the third-gen RAV4s in the world, no one seems to know for sure. Look around; you’ll see these things in pretty much every possible orientation. Maybe it just doesn’t matter?

The cover doesn’t have any sort of positioning or locking mechanism on it, there’s no locating pins or tabs or even a diagram, as you can see in this video showing how to slide the damn thing on:

So, really, you can mount this tire cover in pretty much any orientation you feel like, and if you see this era of RAV4 out in the wild, pretty much every possible position is represented. Just as an example, look at these RAV4s, all from the same dealership:

Look at that – not a single one has the tire cover in the same orientation!

But is there a correct orientation?

Well, I’m hesitant to say “correct” because I don’t want to impede anyone’s self-expression when it comes to their car, but there does appear to be an orientation that Toyota prefers. You can see this orientation in official photos for brochures and various manuals. It’s this orientation:

Here is a picture right from Toyota’s own press images site. It’s the real thing. There are also more diagrammatic pictures from service manuals:

Look at that. The little incised shape is tricky to render in line art, but you can see here that the draftsperson was quite thorough, including the hard-to-see edges as well, which shows that the shape is really sort of a side-window or sail kind of shape. But the orientation matches the press photo, with the apex of the boomerang shape pointing roughly to 10 o’clock.

If you still don’t believe me, maybe you’ll believe this CG animation of a RAV4 chasing bulky attempted thieves in this old commercial:

I’m not going to lie, I thought this was a commercial featuring the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles at first.

I guess the big question here is does this all actually matter? I’m not exactly sure, but I know someone who may be: our very own Adrian Clarke, a professional car designer who has worked on things just like this, spare tire covers specifically, even. It’s worth seeing what an actual designer thinks about all this, right? Of course it is. Here we go:

“This feels like the sort of bullshit that only Torch pays attention to, but in another disturbing example of mine and Jason’s thoughts aligning I can let you in to a secret: this is the sort of thing car designers lose sleep over.

As is probably well known by now, one of the cars I helped design was the 2019 L663 Defender. And was does that car have that hardly any cars have now? A tailgate mounted spare wheel. There’s so many things to think about. What will it look like? Can ham-fisted dealership chimps be trusted to mount it straight? The project leaders didn’t want a cake tin type affair because the disc part could be fitted on the squint, marketing didn’t want it because it looked cheap, and the whole thing was a nightmare because the Defender tailgate hinges were already on their weight limit, so we couldn’t make anything too heavy. Oh and because it was Land Rover there was no money.

The evaluation department had gotten a new G-Class in to see how that was screwed together. My manager and I went over and had a look at how Mercedes did it. Yep, a cheap ass cake tin: a metal band around the tread securing a disc that could end up mounted at completely the wrong angle, with a shitty little padlock at the bottom securing it. Fuck my life, I went to fancy design school for this?”

So, there you go, one of the most common and yet least-discussed automotive mysteries has been solved, just for you. What are you going to do with this newfound knowledge? Will you accost the first driver of a third-gen RAV4 you see with a non-factory-orientated spare tire cover and make them pull over and fix it, while you watch? Or will you just let them roll by, reveling in the delirious rule-breaking, and enjoy the chaos?

The choice is yours. Choose well.

If You Own One Of These Toyota Corollas, RAV4s, Or Matrix/Vibes You Should Stop Driving Your Car Immediately

Toyota Once Sold A RAV4 With Three Doors, A Soft Top, And A Manual Transmission: Holy Grails

The Unsung Hero Of The Autopian Booth At The Auto Show: Cold Start