This seems like an example of survivorship bias. That Honda is an outlier. Not every car will go up that much if at all. Hondas are known for reliability but it

This seems like an example of survivorship bias. That Honda is an outlier. Not every car will go up that much if at all. Hondas are known for reliability but it takes time to know if a car model is reliable and not a lemon. The purchase price of that car would have been $27,320.28 in today's dollars. Also, you still have to store it and do some minor maintenance even though it's not being used. The true cost of ownership for 21 years isn't really known. It's hard to know how much the real profit actually was. Either way, it's a gamble as an investment strategy.