Full review

Expectations run high when a caravan marque celebrates an incredible 90 years. And Swift marks 90 years of the Eccles name with a range of stunning cool-grey sided models.

Our example for this test was the Sterling Elite Emerald; Elite being the premium range in the Eccles family. It’s a classic, proven four-berth layout with high quality finish and lots of specification.

But manufacturer Swift has taken this range much further. Step inside and you’re in a mixture of Habitat, IKEA and cosy, practical tourer.

It’s all about colour. The woodwork is pastel-pale, accentuated with dark chocolate-coloured locker base edging.  
The worktops employ that dark brown too – Swift calls it ebony. According to Grantham Caravans, who loaned us the Emerald for the test, the light wood and dark surface interior is a bit of a culture shock for a lot of caravanners. But that’s the whole point. This range dares to be different.

The deep, dark brown theme carries on into the soft furnishings, top-edging the voile and cream fabric curtains, enhancing the settee backrests, edging the curtain ties and forming the centre panel of two-fabric button-feature cushions.
The washroom, too, gets the cool pale wood and touch of chocolate theme. It’s radical. It’s unlike anything anywhere else in caravans. And I think it ?works well. But I respect your views if you turn and run from the pastel wood.

Now for the layout detail. This new-for-2009 model gives you a superbly large kitchen surface with useful shelf beneath the forward end just above the drawer that sits atop the heater. Kitchen cupboard space is a bit confined at first glance – but then cast your eyes to the offside and you’ll notice a large cupboard with a pull-out basket arrangement. Now go back to the kitchen and take a look at the Thetford glass and brushed steel fronted oven and grill. Usefully, there’s a mains hotplate among the three gas rings on the hob, a feature that will save you a lot of money on gas in the course of a year.

Any which way you look at this kitchen, it’s a winner. Large central sink (with removable drainer stored in a cupboard), more work surface than the majority of caravans – and the added bonus of the two-seater offside table to use as extra ?food-preparation space if you should ever need it. It’s a caravan equipped for banquet proportion meals.

Attention to detail is a hallmark of the Elite range – and at £16,000-plus, that’s what you’d expect. The 90 special gets some neat touches that exemplify its status in the luxury bracket. Take a look at the Sterling-etched long thin mirror by the doorway, for example. It’s set into a pale grey panel that stretches on up to the ceiling where there’s a spotlight set into a little grey-edged plinth.

Grey edging outlines the washroom door, too, all in clean-lines appeal style. Tiniest spotlights plus two mains corner lights that follow the curve of the head-locker furniture take care of the lighting. There are no central lights – a bit of a surprise, perhaps. But there is ample lighting from the spotlights which, incidentally, use high output soft white LEDs that take less power from your battery – important, of course, if you’re away from mains hook-up.

Security gets the Elite touch for 2009, in the form of a high security door lock with cool-style “flip” key rather like that used on some cars, plus AL-KO Secure wheel locks, an intruder alarm – and a tracking system called HAL Locate, which Swift says is the first tracking system for the leisure industry that is Thatcham-approved.

Tow stability and smoothness are enhanced by shock absorbers and, while you’re noticing the finer exterior points, take a look at those grey metallic sides that gleam in the sun. Notice, too, the darker grey used for the locker edges – a stylish improvement on use of white edges, which looked a bit unfinished.

Graphics are stunning – this caravan is a real eye-catcher, to the extent that it attracted head-turns, comments and stares aplenty on our test day on site.

But it’s inside that the real stunning theme continues. Turn the chunky steel domestic-style door-latch and step into the washroom and you are sure you have reached caravanning ?luxury. It’s stark, minimalist in styling – and huge. The shower is the step-in sort. No door, just a large plastic screen and a towel-yourself-dry area within the shower itself. The wardrobe’s in here, with two useful drawers beneath it.

Carpeting is thick-pile, high-quality fawn that’s an exact match for one of the shades in the upholstery. All in all, colour co-ordination is perfect and the effect a delight. Do we agree with Grantham Caravans’ comment that the mixture of lightest and darkest wood is a culture shock? Yes, we think they’re probably right. At Which Caravan we’re divided on what we think of it. But for me it’s a winning look.