I know in Britain you have all kinds of shows where the public are the stars, from living together in a house and home improvement advice through to antique buying and selling at auction. Here, we have equally popular reality programmes, including one which not only attracts millions of viewers, but actually skews the second-hand car market single-handedly.

It's called the annual Barrett-Jackson auction in Scottsdale, Arizona. This year's auction begins next week on 13 January, and runs through to the 21st. There are dozens of auctions throughout the year, and even other Barrett-Jackson sales, but this one alone has the power to alter car prices.