I am the latest victim of this. I also did my service recently at Parramatta Terry shields Toyota and yesterday noticed that there is a wire hanging from my car. When approached Parramatta Terry shields Toyota, immediately they said it should be stolen spare wheel and they have plenty of such reports. When asked how can someone steal it when it is always garaged and there is no break-in to the garage, Toyota customer service member coolly said that it will take only 30 seconds to remove the spare wheel and could be stolen at any mall. She said that it will cost $2600 to replace and suggested to claim through insurance for which I need to pay $500 excess and lose my no claim benefits which I saved for past 10 years. When I purchased this car, I sold my old Toyota Camry 1999 model with only 128000 kms for $2600. Now I realised that spare tyre for this Kluger is same price as the old car, I sold.
