Civic pride: Indiana welcomes new Greensburg assembly plant.

• Author: Hromadka, Erik
• Position: AROUND INDIANA

IN THE WORST OF automotive times, it was the best of news. And it arrived with an Indiana dateline.

While recent headlines have been dominated by worries over the precarious fates of domestic automakers and falling sales of most other automotive brands, the dedication of a new Honda plant in Greensburg was a rare example of good news and a bright future for the industry.

And that got a lot of attention for the area.

"Monday's grand opening of Honda Motor Co.'s Civic assembly plant in Greensburg was a dream come true for this town of 12,000," proclaimed the Detroit Free Press.

"The dark cloud that hangs menacingly over Detroit this week seemed light years away," remarked Automotive News. "Imagine that, an automotive celebration just a few hours away from Detroit in southeastern Indiana."

"The rise of Honda's mammoth new car plant in America's farming heartland is a stark contrast to the layoffs and plant closings announced in recent months by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and Chrysler LLC," noted The Japan Times.

The new Indiana plant will make the Honda Civic, a fuel-efficient vehicle that was introduced in the United States some 35 years ago and has already racked up more than 300,000 sales across the country in 2008. Those numbers are up slightly over 2007, bucking a trend of declining U.S. sales faced by almost every automaker.

While fuel efficiency is a hallmark of the Civic, which gets between 25 and 36 miles per gallon, it was the efficiency of Indiana workers that caught the attention of Takeo Fukui, president and CEO of Honda Motor Company, Ltd.

"The entire world of Honda has great 'Civic Pride' in our team of associates in Indiana," says Fukui, who came to Indiana to attend the dedication. "Each Honda associate here in Indiana plays a direct and important role in our ability to meet the needs of our customers. Our challenge is to continue to deliver products of the highest quality, produced with the highest efficiency."

To mark the dedication, Yuzo Uenohara, president of Honda Manufacturing of Indiana drove a new Civic off the production line with three new Honda associates as passengers. Daphna Tubbs of Greensburg, Willard Jones of Indianapolis and Pam Manis of Sunman were cheered by hundreds of fellow employees dressed in the company's white suits and green hats. Uenohara notes the modern plant continues Honda's practice of minimizing manufacturing waste and is the first U.S. facility to feature an on-site parts...