Full review

The 565 brings twin beds into the cultured, refined Swift Elegance range. It was probably a foregone conclusion that the manufacturer which introduced its new Elegance caravans in February 2014, with SMART HT construction and timberless floors, should at some point give buyers looking for twin beds something in this new range. And here it is, launched in the summer of 2014.

The layout is standard enough; it’s now as well established as an option for couples as were once traditional end-kitchen two-berths.

Although it’s ostensibly a couple’s caravan, this layout does have family capability and versatility, especially for families in the teen years.

What distinguishes the 565, apart from the absence of timber in the floor, is styling. That’s where the name Elegance comes in; we’d say there is currently no more appropriate name for a range of tourers. These are elegant caravans through and through. They’re sophisticated in terms of construction, and they’re both sophisticated and elegant in terms of looks.

Those sleek exterior lines, in particular the rounded front corners, with swooping integrated grab handles, don’t just look aerodynamic (that is a factor, of course); they look appealing in a classy, high-end, Daimler or Jag sort of way.
Inside the classy look continues in an almost understated manner. We are reminded of the phrase “less is more” as we sit in the 565 and decide just why the interior scheme works so well.

There’s a plainness about the look. Plain cream seating with just a plain brown backrest section to add interest. Plain white kitchen worktops that really do look so much like marble you find yourself touching it to see if it’s cold. Plain cream bases of the lockers and stark, bright white kitchen cabinet doors…

Then it dawns on us that there are factors accentuating that plainness. Chief among them is the woodwork, with a prominent grain, and top lockers with a high-gloss finish. Nice! At the front, the plain look is emphased by panels upholstered to match the curtains; these panels are bordered to the front by plain cream corner curves into which are set chunky strip lights that shimmer as you alter the angle at which you look at them. Again, nice!
 
We’re so bowled over by the styling both inside and out as we write this review that we begin to wonder if we are missing the point about the 565. It’s here to look fantastic and earn its keep among the vast choice of twin-bed offerings. And it does so on styling. But not just styling. Under the floor is a unique construction, a five-layer sandwich with insulating Styrofoam at the core, clad with a rigid honeycomb structure that is both strong and lightweight. And it’s covered in GRP with a woven glass structure that gives the floor a tough, impervious finish.

We return, though, to style points, as we go to open the door of the full-width washroom. The door, and its handle, is as chunky as one you’d find in a house. And there’s a panel running vertically on the wood grain, of mid-grey, bordered by shiny metal strips. When you look closely at the panel you see a subtle pattern with a light-reflective sheen and we find ourselves reaching for the word ”nice” again.
 

Showering

In the shower room the style story continues. Big chrome handles. A substantial bi-fold shower door that runs in a track when you open and close it. A towel bar that hinges down from the shower ceiling (now that is very nice!). There’s also a towel loop and two hooks; the 565 caters amply for towels! There are three more cabinets, and two speakers (part of the Blaupunkt sound system; two more speakers are above the lounge).

Floor space is generous; 73cm at is narrowest point and 87cm at its widest.
 

Sleeping

The nearside bed is slightly longer, at 1.9m than the offside bed (1.8m). The widths are different, too; 70cm for the nearside bed and 73cm for the offside one. Dimension will dictate which bed suits which person.
Children can sleep singly in the lounge provided their height is suitable for a 1.6m bed length.
 

Storage

Those twin beds are the key to the 565’s main storage advantage. They’re exceptionally light in weight to raise. There’s also front access (which you use depends on what you are stowing here). And the nearside beds base also has exterior access.

At the front, you can reach into the nearside settee base locker from the outside.

The high-gloss lockers door give you eight opportunities to hide stuff. Importantly, all these lockers have shelves, which effectively doubles their storage capacity, as you don’t have to pile clothing items high.

The 565’s wardrobe gives you 50cm of hanging width; not the largest wardrobe in the business but, actually, does that matter when there is so much space for folded items elsewhere?

There’s a cabinet under the wardrobe but we think that’s best analysed as a kitchen component.
 

Dining

The table is easy to extract and replace in its own cabinet forward of the shower. (We’re great fans of vertically stored tables, having struggled with those we find stored under seating and beds!)

Snack and breakfast eating is best done at the extending central-front chest of drawers top which gives you a table measuring 72cm by 64cm. You do need to make sure you take stuff off the top before tipping it slightly to withdraw the extension, though.
 

Lounging

Firm forward-end armrests create lovely comfort. There are two scatter cushions but we think if we were buying a 565 we’d like two more cushions, to add to the comfort and also enhance the cosy looks.

Two banks of chrome-finish appliance sockets under the front window give you two mains socket, a 12v and USB socket, plus aerial points. Behind the seat backs, a wide aperture ensures heat rises efficiently from the Alde finned radiators positioned at the top of the bed box height.
 

Kitchen

It’s the pure white cabinet doors that draw your eyes first in the kitchen. Yet there is far more than the visual aspect to attract your attention. All doors and drawers have soft-close hinge mechanisms. The sink is recessed into the marble-effect worktop with no rim. There’s a 37cm width of surface to the left of the sink; this expands to 71cm when you hinge up the extension.

The cabinet and drawers have handles which push in when secured; a quick press brings them out again and ready to used as handles. This feature is also on the wardrobe and two forward top lockers. It’s another refinement to add to the long list of little things as well as major aspects of the 565 which we love.

The storage arrangements in the kitchen are two drawers and a cabinet between the fridge and the oven which contains two metal basket-style shelves that pull out on runners. It’s not a lot, but that’s no problem because opposite, under the wardrobe, there are two drawers, 42cm wide, plus a small amount of space in front of the power distribution unit which is housed in a cabinet under the drawers. And in the kitchen itself the top cabinet is capacious, at 82cm wide and with a height of 51cm.
 

Towing

The tiny plaque on the stark, smart black A-frame cover tells you that an ATC electronic stability control device is mounted under the caravan to detect and then correct a first sign of snaking. Other than commenting on the obvious merits of having this safety system on board, we can’t detail the 565’s tow characteristics, because we were invited to review this model at the Swift factory before it had been released, so understandably Swift didn’t want us to take it out on the road. But we have towed other 565 Swift models and found them to be sturdy, steady performers; the 565 in Elegance guise would, we expect, demonstrate similar characteristics.

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