Inside, you can feel where weight has been saved. The Swift has a nice enough interior but one made largely from harder and scratchier materials than the equivalent Polo. Crucially, though, the way in which the dashboard has been presented is attractive to behold, with a sweeping, layered look, cream colouring and soft pads on the doors. It helps, too, that the switches you touch often, like the brushed-look climate controls, are pleasingly finished and feel built to last.
There’s a good amount of ergonomic soundness to it, too: the controls for the lights (including the foglight) sit on the left stalk, those for the wiper sensitivity on the right and there are separate climate buttons and a soft-feel old-school handbrake.
There’s also a touchscreen, of course, and its graphics aren’t nearly as well resolved as those in the Polo, but at least you don’t need it for major driving controls or safety functions. During our time with it, we saw no software glitches and the Bluetooth maintained a stable connection.
The lane-keeping assistance can be toggled by a button on the dash, but the speed-limit assistant (which is obliged to default to on) can be toggled only via a steering-wheel button and a trip computer stalk while the car is stationary.
This is a cumbersome process that you will likely tire of quite quickly, not least because there are button blanks on the dashboard and steering wheel that could do the job, and if you have to be stationary, that negates the advantage of avoiding putting it on a touchscreen.
We can’t fault the amount of space inside, however, with ample front head room and a forward-pushed windscreen such a stretch from the driver that you feel set a long way back in the car.
There’s enough head and leg room in the rear, too, and passengers over 6ft will be able to fit in. It’s relatively narrow but plenty comfortable enough for four (although it can seat five if need be).
The boot is from 265 litres with the rear seats down, which is almost 100 litres smaller than the Polo’s but 13 litres larger than the i10’s. With both seats folded down, space increases up to 980 litres. It has a helpfully deep floor, loosely carpeted rather than solidly based, with space for an optional spare wheel beneath it.
