Nope, that was before my time. Not saying that matching a shade of gray is impossible, just that I understand the concern that it might not match, and these days, like Gio said, people will complain. At the very least, it's at least one reason a manufacturer might choose to go black instead.
Speaking of tarmac, it's the same all over the world. We only use cement when the surface needs to be particularly strong or heat resistant. The vast majority of our roads are asphalt, and start off pitch black just like everywhere else in the world. As it ages, it goes a dark gray, or if the aggregate used is particularly light in color, a light gray. Only fresh tarmac is pitch black, and I don't think that's different in other countries unless they are using some kind of black aggregate.
