We all have that crazy aunt or uncle that we can’t help but love. For me it’s an uncle who lives in the South, loves to leave me prank phone messages about politicians and happens to be a bigwig for an automotive company.

When it comes to business though, he’s, well, all business. So when I told him I was writing a story about the new Honda plant in Greensburg, he interjects, “We’re a pain, aren’t we?” — referring to the auto industry’s cautious interactions with the media.

Getting information about Honda for the BizVoice story did take a lot of patience, I will admit (about two months, but who’s counting?). But that’s OK. After all, they were hustling to wrap up two years of work on the $550 million plant.

Those two years of planning, training and building culminated with one (with many more to come) shiny black car early this morning. Greensburg’s plant began mass production today when its first four-door Civic rolled off the assembly line.

Congrats to both the city of Greensburg and Honda. We’ll be looking for more of those fuel-efficient Civics traveling along I-74.