This is in part to give them a heads up on what the maker in question has in store, but mostly so that said company can gauge an early reaction to its handiwork.

Such opportunities are always fascinating – what car nut wouldn’t want to see cars due out in one, two or three years time? Which is how the diplomatic skills of this scribbler and some colleagues came to be stress-tested one cold winter’s day in Detroit, where we were to be shown a whole phalanx of new products from Jeep, Chrysler and Dodge.