Fake reflectors on new cars. Why?

I've been interested in lights and reflectors on vehicles for a while now but I've begun to notice something recently.
Most cars that have brought into Australia have fake front and rear reflectors, about 15% have real ones the other 85% either have Amber & Red reflectors with no reflective material behind them or just plain white with no reflective material behind or sometimes they're not there at all just a blank space wondering what's the point of this why not just leave the reflector in its not like is illegal.

Here are a few examples.
White with no reflective properties http://imgur.com/CmBARNu this one is weird as sometimes they don't remove the reflective qualities so the front reflector is white.

This one is the worst http://imgur.com/gVdLgmV they place a big orange blob of plastic there that doesn't do anything.

And the rears are mostly fake to http://imgur.com/dX95unP.

They even do it on trucks http://imgur.com/6nvcp7g
In this image they ship the truck with black plastic in the positions where the reflectors go and in order register it you have to stick a reflector exactly where they remove one. Just why?

Starinless said:

I've been interested in lights and reflectors on vehicles for a while now but I've begun to notice something recently. Most cars that have brought into Australia have fake front and rear reflectors, about 15% have real ones the other 85% either have Amber & Red reflectors with no reflective material behind them or just plain white with no reflective material behind or sometimes they're not there at all just a blank space wondering what's the point of this why not just leave the reflector in its not like is illegal. Here are a few examples. White with no reflective properties http://imgur.com/CmBARNu this one is weird as sometimes they don't remove the reflective qualities so the front reflector is white. This one is the worst http://imgur.com/gVdLgmV they place a big orange blob of plastic there that doesn't do anything. And the rears are mostly fake to http://imgur.com/dX95unP

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Well those first two I have seen similar designs on other cars where I work...and I would have to ask if you have shined a light at them at night? You don't actually ~need~ a reflective backing for the optical part to redirect the photons back toward you. I have seen some that place the reflectors in other locations than the marker lamp housings...sometimes not even on the same level. That third one though...I dunno...I've seen a few that kinda resembled that but were still very effective, but they weren't close enough to say that it's the same design.

Some of those look like diffusers for marker and/or signal lights....

lightfooted said:

Well those first two I have seen similar designs on other cars where I work...and I would have to ask if you have shined a light at them at night?

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I have actually this is my bosses and his son's car I went offloading at night and noticed it on the blue car.
Then I replaced the tail lights on the silver one and took a photo with flash to show them working to him, the fronts looked dim,;the Same as if you held amber plastic there, no reflective qualities.

lightfooted;4962326I said:

have seen some that place the reflectors in other locations than the marker lamp housings...sometimes not even on the same level

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Both of the cars don't have sidemarkers either, the lamp holders behind the fake reflectors are blocked as well.

Sadden said:

Some of those look like diffusers for marker and/or signal lights....

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I could see that but the lamp holders are blocked on the blue car and on the silver one the whole lamp holder isn't molded, just a flat back with no markings.

I guess sometimes at design stage a car manufacturer had an idea to place a bulb behind those diffusers, but then a boss comes and requires to cut manufacturing expenses. So the exterior part stays as is, but functional internals go to RIP. And you find empty openings underneath those false diffusers.

Or that might be a "lower trim" vehicle with some parts omitted

To understand what is what: diffusers look like an array of tiny lenses and reflectors -- like small pyramids that provide full internal reflection (no mirror surface needed at all).

I suppose, they are triangular or as some of them are there more like an octagon besides, i know that that area on these cars is this a side marker & reflector in the US so wouldn't having one assembly line for the casing and then putting a different internal reflector on for the low beam save money?

#2 looks like it just is sun-faded.

vadimax said:

Or that might be a "lower trim" vehicle with some parts omitted

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'Cept that no matter the trim level, a car must conform to the lighting standards of the country it's sold in new that are in force at the time of manufacture.

Some interesting guesses in this thread, but Starinless, most of your pics show exactly what you think they show: non-retroreflectors. Most of them are there as either placeholders for where the side reflex reflector is present on North American models where that function is required (your 2nd photo), or as provisions for a side reflex reflector that isn't present on that particular lamp because it's not configured for North America (your 1st photo). Both of these strategies have been very common for many years, even on some vehicles that aren't marketed (lamps that aren't used) in North America. Side retro-reflectors are permitted outside NA, they're just not required. The reason why makers often don't go ahead and put them on is then they'd have to be homologated (type-approved) which costs significant money the law doesn't say they have to spend. In Australia they wouldn't have to spend it, but in Europe and the many countries that directly apply UN Regulation 48, they would, so in order to minimize the number and cost of vehicle and component variants, they usually leave off the equipment that's not required.

But the provisions are still there. It is a strategy known generally as "package protection", which means making provisions in the design of a part to accommodate a variety of configurations for different regulations, different trim levels, etc, even though not all the provisions are used in all the variants of a part. Other examples include locations for front position light bulbs in a headlamp reflector or bezel that isn't drilled/used in North America because the front position light function is provided by dim operation of the front turn signals, decorative badges installed on North American-spec vehicles where a turn signal repeater goes in other markets, and blockoff plates on North American-spec vehicles where other-market vehicles get a rear fog lamp.

(The pic of the rectangular amber stick-on item on the side of the truck shows just a faulty retroreflector, not a deliberate fake one.)

Yeah I can see that it makes sense.
That might also be a reason why Australia has a different part number for the headlights then UK or India and other places because we don't directly apply the ECE regulations only accept them like Canada dose to the US.
That might explain why on the new Holden Commodore aka Chevy SS has white reflectors at the front that Work and red ones at the rear also Work because it doesn't need type approval for optional reflectors under ADR.

EU lighting regulations dictate that 4x4s and SUVs with spare wheels on the rear have to have tail lights in the bumper and cannot use the rear light clusters. So here in the UK, the rear clusters are still fitted, but don't do anything.

markweatherill said:

EU lighting regulations dictate that 4x4s and SUVs with spare wheels on the rear have to have tail lights in the bumper and cannot use the rear light clusters

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Not quite as such. What actually exists are requirements for inward and outward visibility angle ranges, and if the vehicle has an attachment or component that interferes with that range of visbility angles for the lights, then there have to be other, un-obstructed lights. And unlike North American regulations that tend to regard a "pair" of lamps as meaning "lamps installed in multiples of two", the UN regs tend to regard "pair" as meaning "two and only two". There are provisions in the UN regs for multiple lamps of a kind (turn signal, stop, etc) on each side, but they have to be engineered and type-approved as such. So in that case of obstructed visibility range, the main light clusters aren't active.