Spatial skills - it's nothing to do with moon flights
Published
I've always said you should never believe everything you read but then a recent overseas report saying spatial skills such as map reading and parking might be difficult for some women because they had too little testosterone in the womb.
Now I know you can't believe everything you read.
Apparently a bunch of scientists in Germany said a lack of the hormone affects spatial ability. Spatial skill is the ability to assess and orientate shapes and spaces; map-reading and parking are spatial skills which, men often say, women lack.
But read on... here's where it gets interesting. The researchers also looked at the length of the students' (their research subjects) wedding and index fingers. Low testosterone levels are also linked to shorter wedding ring fingers, they said.
In women, the two fingers are usually almost equal in length, as measured from the crease nearest the palm to the fingertip. In men, the ring finger tends to be much longer than the index.
A quick random poll among my women friends - and between my seven-year-old daughter and her little buddies - showed that all of us have longer ring fingers than index fingers.
Apart from the juniors, all of us of driving age are excellent parkers - and map-readers. So put that in your pipes and smoke it, guys... when you're battling to navigate your way around a map!
Talking of easy parking, Fiat flew a bunch of us great drivers/parkers/map readers up to their HQ in Johannesburg for an all-women day of pampering and driving the brand-new Fiat Palio Vibe.
Fiat said its customers - they have more female and black female buyers than any other manufacturer - have increasingly been wanting a better-specced version of the Palio Go!.
This is it. It has the same 1.2 litre engine and three or five doors but comes with added features such as power-assisted steering (so even a man would have no problem parking it!), air-con, an audio system featuring a radio/CD and an MP3 player and 14" rims.
It's not very luxurious but then you're getting all of this for just R89 900 for the three-door, R91 000 for the five-door.
And by the way, you get a full-sized spare wheel for your money, too.
The Vibe is cute and perky, with larger rounded headlights and a rather cute tail and, like all Fiats, the car has a fuel cut-off that kills the fuel supply to prevent a post-crash fire.
The Vibe is available in a lovely range of colours comes with a two-year, unlimited distance warranty and an additional year's "dealer extended warranty", three years on paintwork and five years on rust perforation.
There's also a year's AA Fleetcare roadside assistance.