Car copmanies haven't been good investments? Seriously? I mean, sure, if you're talking about the last 10 or 20 years, I can dig that. But if you're talking about from inception, you're wrong. Look at Ford:
I think he's arguing that Ford is an outlier. Remember, when the car was invented, there were hundreds of car companies (remember the Stanley Steamer?)
If you went back to 1920, and compared the car companies from then and now, Ford might be the only one that has still remained. Even classic nameplates like Oldsmobile, Pontiac, and Buick have fallen off.
If you went back to the 1960's, and told someone that Oldsmobile and Pontiac would cease to exist in 50 years, they would have called you crazy.
Is this going to happen to the electric car as well? Will Tesla be the next Ford or the next Stanley?
*The same trend can also be seen with PC manufacturers. How many different PC companies were there in the 1980's. How many exist now?
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=0&chdd=1&chds=1&...
Not only has there been very nice asset appreciation but look at all those dividends. Huge dividends for a very, very long time.