Quake forces Ford to cut orders of black, red cars

Japan's earthquake has caused a shortage of a metallic element used in some of Ford's paint shades.

The massive earthquake that hit Northern Japan earlier this month has affected new car production across the globe, including in North America, where Ford now says that it is asking dealers to stop ordering vehicles painted Tuxedo Black or certain shades of red thanks to a supplier outage.

Ford says that the paint colors use a Japan-sourced substance called Xirallic, which adds a metallic glitter to certain paint shades. Tuxedo Black is available on a wide range of Ford vehicles, but the automaker is so far only stopping production of trucks and SUVs that use the shade since they call for more paint to cover their more expansive sheet metal.

Dealers can still order cars like the Lincoln MKS (pictured) and Ford Taurus in Tuxedo Black, a no-cost option on those vehicles.

The Michigan automaker is also cutting back production of three red shades offered on its F-Series Super Duty, Ranger, Focus, Econoline and Lincoln Navigator models for the same reason.

Ford says it is working with other suppliers to find an alternative that can be temporarily produced somewhere other than Japan.


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