27 September 1908: The first Model T rolls out
The first production Model T was completed at Ford's Piquette Avenue plant in Detroit. Henry Ford wanted a car ordinary families could afford. With the moving assembly line introduced a few years later, production soared and the price fell dramatically. More than 15 million were built. The Model T showed the power of making a product cheaper every year instead of fancier.
The lesson: Relentlessly lowering costs and prices can create entire markets and lasting competitive advantages.
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
- 1 October 1908: Ford rolls out the Model T
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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