Drive away car insurance
Need drive away insurance to get your new car home? Get a fast fully comprehensive policy from Cuvva, from as little as an hour, up to 28 days.
What does drive away insurance mean?
Drive away insurance is just like a fully comprehensive annual policy - the only difference is the length (and price!). You can buy policies from just 1 hour, all the way up to 28 days, giving you as much time as you need to find the best annual policy deal for you.
It's great if you've just bought a new car but don't want to get rushed into an annual policy in the dealership, or the seller's driveway. Drive away insurance starts instantly and can usually be extended too, with no credit checks, long-term commitments or tie-ins - so you’re in complete control.
Topics covered:
When would you need drive away insurance?
If you’ve just bought a vehicle, it is very unlikely you’ll be insured by the seller to drive the car home and any test drive policy will likely have ended.
Driving without insurance, even when you pick up a new vehicle, is illegal and can lead to serious consequences, including an unlimited fine, penalty points, and even arrest. With drive away cover starting from just £11.90 for an hour, it's a tiny investment for peace of mind.
How much is drive away insurance?
The price of insuring a new car for a short-term period depends on a lot of factors to work out your price, like your age, job title, the car you've purchased, and where you live. So your price will be unique to you.
But we know it can be helpful to get a ballpark figure. So here are what you could expect to pay for various short-term durations.*
| Hourly car insurance | Daily car insurance | Weekly car insurance |
|---------------------- |-------------------- |---------------------- |
| 1 hour from £11.90 | 1 day from £17.90 | 1 week from £45.11 |
| 2 hours from £12.89 | 2 days from £22.66 | 2 weeks from £70.69 |
| 3 hours from £12.89 | 3 days from £27.44 | 3 weeks from £87.42 |
| 6 hours from £14.49 | 4 days from £29.82 | 28 days from £139.74 |
Fully comprehensive. And then some
While you sort our annual insurance, we cover you for:
You and your stuff
Payouts up to £40,000 for accidents, theft, attempted theft, or fire damage
Up to £500 for fitted audio equipment, and £100 for your things
Class 1 business use
Other drivers
£5m for claims
£2m for damage and medical expenses
European third-party
The little extras:
Get covered in minutes
Policy docs instantly sent right to your phone
9am to 9pm human support
Common drive away insurance questions
What do you need to legally drive a new car?
You need a full licence, at least third party insurance, road tax and a DVLA issued logbook (also called a V5C form) as proof of ownership. If the car is over 3 years old, it’ll also need a valid MOT certificate.
Driving without insurance just isn’t worth it - and police are catching people who try all the time. A Freedom of Information request by Cuvva in 2024 revealed 323,144 drivers received penalty points for driving without insurance between Jan 1 2021 and July 9, 2024. Driving without insurance means, at a minimum, that police could give you a fixed penalty of £300 and 6 points on your licence - although there is technically no limit to the size of the fine. It’s a costly mistake to make.
Isn’t there an insurance ‘grace period’ when buying a new car in the UK?
No. It doesn’t matter whether you’re only driving 5 minutes home from the dealership, or even just moving a car from one parking spot to another - you must be insured anytime you're moving behind the wheel. If you own the car, it needs to be continuously insured from the minute you own it - whether that’s an annual policy, or a drive away policy followed immediately by an annual policy. Unlike the USA, there is no grace period - and zero tolerance for uninsured driving.
What is a cover note?
A cover note is something some insurers provide to show a car has insurance, right after a policy has been bought. It can be given to the car owner to prove their car is insured to drive, so the driver can hit the road immediately rather than wait for the policy documents to arrive in the post.
More modern insurers like Cuvva do things differently. Our temporary car insurance starts instantly, and we email your policy docs over right away - so there's no waiting for the postman. You don't need a cover note with us, because we sort it right away.
This can be especially useful if you've just bought a car and want to get it home. Cuvva's temporary policies, starting from just one hour, are perfect for this this in-between period. You can sort short-term cover so you're good to drive while you look for something longer.
Can I insure a car I don't own yet?
Yes you can, even if you aren’t the registered keeper. Temporary car insurance is great for this. Got your eyes on a new set of wheels but aren't quite sure yet? Grab an hour's cover and take a test drive!
You can also use temporary car insurance to borrow a mate or family member's car, with policies from one hour to 28 days.
Can you buy a drive away policy in advance?
With Cuvva you can book your driveaway insurance up to 28 days in the future.
Standalone policies
You can use Cuvva to insure your own brand new car to get it from the dealership. Or you can borrow any car in minutes. Your protected by your own comprehensive policy.
9am to 9pm support
We're free when you're free. Get 9am to 9pm support in the app. We'll usually get back to you within 1 minute.
Instant extensions
If you need a bit longer, you can extend your policy in a few taps. We'll let you know when you're running out of time.
It's all in the details
The small things that have a big impact.
Notification reminders
Know when your policy is ending
Apple Pay support
For fast, secure payments
Licence scanner
Set your account up at the speed of camera
Who we cover
To use Cuvva's car insurance for the first time, you'll usually need:
To be 19 to 70 when your policy starts
A UK licence or a full licence from Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, or Spain
Access to a car that's at most 40 years old
A car that's worth up to £60,000
Looking for something else?
Learner driver insurance
Hourly cover for learners with a provisional licence
Up to 3 hours per day with a supervisor
For practising in someone else’s car or your own
Owner’s NCB protected
Usually cheaper than being added to your parent's insurance
Temporary van insurance
For commuting, driving to sites, and carrying your own equipment
Lend to a friend or colleague
Carriage of own goods cover
Business class 1 cover
Fully comprehensive
Weekly car insurance
Perfect for when you're inbetween insurance, or about to sell your car
Fully comprehensive cover for up to 28 days
The expert's view
Adam Kent, Cuvva's Senior Underwriting Lead and Insurance Expert, said: ‘If you're buying a car from a dealership, be warned: car insurance (usually) isn’t included! This means you absolutely must sort it yourself before driving home - even if it’s just a five minute journey. The easy solution is called drive away insurance. This is temporary cover for the period between buying the car and arranging your own full insurance. Getting into an accident on the way home with no insurance would leave you in serious trouble. Do the sensible thing and use drive away insurance.’
Insurance built by people
Cuvva is a 100+ strong team working to make insurance radically better every day. From our tech-stack to our training team, our customers are at the heart of everything we do.
