1 October 1908: Ford rolls out the Model T
Henry Ford introduced the Model T, a sturdy, simple car aimed at ordinary buyers rather than the rich. Moving assembly lines later pushed the price down year after year, and by the 1920s roughly half the cars on American roads were Fords. The lesson for investors was not that cars were exciting, which everyone knew, but that relentlessly lowering the cost of something people want can build an empire.
The lesson: Making a good thing cheaper for millions usually beats making a perfect thing for a few.
What it meant for investors
$1,000 in Ford at the start of 1990 → $1,500 today, vs $19,429 in the S&P 500.
We start the clock at the start of 1990, the first year in our price data after the event. That is 1.5 times the money, but $17,929 less than a plain index fund made over the same years.
What Ford teaches: Surviving without a bailout is admirable but not the same as compounding; a well-run turnaround can still leave a stock below where it started decades earlier.
| Bought in | Price then | Worth today | S&P 500 would be |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | $8.00 | $1,500 | $19,429 |
| 1995 | $10.00 | $1,200 | $14,783 |
| 2000 | $26.00 | $462 | $4,626 |
green = beat the S&P 500 · red = lost money
What if you bought Ford? Every starting year and the full story →
More Ford history
- 5 January 1914: Henry Ford announces the $5 workday
- 17 April 1964: Ford unveils the Mustang
- 27 September 1908: The first Model T rolls out
Could you have called it at the time? The wheel picks the year, you pick the position, ten seconds a pick.
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