What's the benefit of private var and getter and setter over a public var?
<blockquote>
  <p><strong>Possible Duplicate:</strong><br>
  <a href="http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1568091/why-use-getters-and-setters">Why use getters and setters?</a>  </p>
</blockquote>



<p>I see this a fair bit in code examples...</p>

<pre><code>private List&lt;Car&gt; cars;

public List&lt;Car&gt; Cars
   {
      get { return this.cars; }
      set { this.cars = value; }
   }
</code></pre>

<p>What's the benefit of that over just:</p>

<pre><code>public List&lt;Car&gt; cars;
</code></pre>

<p>?</p>

<p>Thank you.</p>
