Is Aviva Motor Insurance any good, or do they suffer from some of the issues that plague other large car insurers like impersonal customer service? Read our review to discover if Aviva ticks the right boxes for you, and find out which important features you'll need to add on for an extra charge. Finally, read through select customer reviews to learn what existing policyholders say about the Aviva experience.

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In This Review

• Aviva Car Insurance: Overall Review
• Customer Reviews and Ratings
• Phone numbers and policy documents

Aviva Car Insurance Overall Review

Most of Aviva car insurance products offer a good set of standard features, but there are some features you'll have to pay extra for and some that have lower-than-expected limits—plus customer ratings highlight a few issues with price rises on renewals and claims. Let's take a closer look to find out if these factors mean you should look elsewhere or give Aviva a try.

We first looked at what's covered by comprehensive Aviva Motor Insurance policies from information available on their website and in the policy documents, and found that cover is generally solid and includes most "must have" categories (according to the Money Advice Service) as standard.

However the personal belongings cover is a bit lower than average, courtesy car cover costs extra and the key cover is confusing (in event of lost or stolen keys or fobs they'll pay for replacement locks, transmitters, central locking interface and affected parts of the alarm and/or immobilizer... but there's no mention of paying for just a replacement key if that's all you need).

Accommodation cover if you're stranded after an insured accident is also a bit low (£150 max) but otherwise they offer a pretty good set of features as you can see in the table below, which compares the features as mentioned on the Aviva website to what you'd ideally get from a good policy.

How Good is Aviva Motor Insurance?	A Good Policy Includes	Does Aviva Deliver?	Aviva Comprehensive Coverage
"Must Have" Features
Windscreen	Full repair or replacement		Included (subject to stricter limits if you don't use an approved repairer)
Belongings	£200+		Up to £150
Keys	£300+		Cover for replacement locks if keys stolen or lost up to market value of car
Protected NCD	2 times in 3 years (standard or optional extra)		If you buy the add on, allowed one claim a year with a min 3 years NCD
Car recovery after accident	Included		Included
Courtesy car (repairs)	Minimum 14 days		If you buy the add on
Repairs guaranteed (if use approved repairer)	12-month guarantee		Lifetime while you own vehicle
"Should Have" Features
New car replacement	Theft or damage at least 60% of list price; cars up to 12 months old; first owner		Included
Stereo and satellite nav	Market value for manufacturer fitted		If permanently fitted to your vehicle, up to market value of vehicle
Alternative transport & Hotel after accident	£250+		Up to £150 for overnight accommodation or public transport
24-hour emergency helpline	Standard		24 hour claims lines
Courtesy car (total loss or theft)	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
Motor legal expenses	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
Breakdown cover	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
"Could Have" Features
Same cover in EU	Standard or add-on extra		Add on available if you call at least two weeks prior
Child car seat replacement after accident, theft, fire	Ideally replaced even if no visible damage		Included
Larger/premium courtesy car	Standard or add-on extra		If you buy the add on
Uninsured driver NCD protection	Standard		Included
Cancellation fee	No more than £50		£0 cancellation fee during cooling off period if cover has not started; otherwise £38 + IPT

Note, here we've analyzed Aviva's traditional 'Motor Insurance' policy with comprehensive cover. Those buying TPFT (Third Party, Fire and Theft) don't get cover for accident damage to their own vehicle, plus they miss out on other features like repair guarantees, the new vehicle replacement clause, child seat cover, Third Party cover for driving other people's cars, glass cover, replacement locks, personal belongings and more. Aviva also offers other motor insurance products such as:

Through their Quotemehappy.com brand, Aviva offers a cheaper option for car insurance—but the lower price means the levels of service and coverage are not as attractive. Quotemehappy.com is an 'online only' brand with no customer service call centre, cancellation fees are higher and you don't get cover for child seats, among other things.

And those aged 17-24 wanting a telematics plan can look at General Accident, which is a member brand of the Aviva family.

Who Underwrites Aviva Car Insurance?

Aviva underwrites car insurance policies for their own brand and other companies like Carrot through Aviva Insurance Ltd.

Does Aviva do delivery driver insurance?

No, Aviva policyholders cannot engage in paid delivery work. Read more about that in our article Does Aviva do delivery insurance?

Aviva Car Insurance Customer Service Reviews and Ratings

Is Aviva Car Insurance any good? We think their comprehensive policies offer a good set of features, although you will have to be sure to add on some features that usually come as standard if you want them, like courtesy car cover.

In terms of Aviva customer reviews, they have improved in recent years—especially their Trustpilot rating. However, they have a relatively high rate of customer complaints with the Financial Ombudsman Service—5.19 insurance complaints per 1,000 policies in force (which is higher than average—read more about insurance complaints here). Since Aviva's Trustpilot and Reviews.co.uk ratings are based on Aviva as a whole, reflecting insurance, savings, investments and pensions products, it's difficult to get a good handle on how their car insurance performs; to find out what real customers have to say about their car insurance specifically, we've read through hundreds of reviews. Here's what we found:

Aviva Car Insurance Trustpilot

Aviva has earned a solid 4.3 stars out of 5 at Trustpilot, with 74% of customers giving Aviva an "Excellent" 5-star rating. Here is a sample of the more common positive comments and customer complaint (which typically relate to communication around the claims process):

"Everything was relatively simple to get my car insurance, and the price was one of the best for such a large company."

"Applying very quick and easy. Great price too."

"Free legal cover and a cheap price. They were also able to automatically lookup my NCD proof saving admin on my side. Couldn't ask for more, much smoother than other insurer/broker renewals."

"Uncontactable and zero Communication. Accident occurred almost 4 weeks ago where I was hit by another vehicle. I have emailed, used chat function and tried to call and simply cannot get hold of my insurance company. I have had zero communication from them... Yet I have already been contacted twice by the 3rd party insurer. Maybe I'll go with them next renewal as they are clearly far more effective."

"I gave 1 star because its easy to get the insurance, but if your going to make a claim (water flood) claim good luck waiting like a doughnut, waited 3 plus months and still waiting, I'm just paying insurance while not having the car fixed or write off and they running around circles making you wait like a doughnut ....."

"We have motor insurance with Aviva. A tree branch fell on my partners car while she was driving, it landed on the bonnet and caused significant damage.

We made a claim with Aviva and they advised that a third party company called Co Part would arrange collection of the car and then we would be told if the car is a write off and told the settlement figure. The collection happened within 2 days and we were advised it would then be 3 to 5 days to get the report (confirmation of write off and settlement figure), 5 days later I chased them to confirm the report would be issued that day, I was casually told it would be a few more days. The person on the phone seemed to have no concept of how urgent an issue like this is and I had to push to get the report that day. This is when the trouble really started. They provided a settlement figure of £3,500 which is £1000 below the market value of the car from examples on Autotrader. I got no report or explanantion as to how they arrived at that figure. They told me to send three examples from Autotrader which I did and they increased the valuation to £3,850 which is still far below the market value and again no evidence or explanation was provided from their side. I asked for their complaints email address which they provided but the email address was fake or incorrect as the email bounced back when I tried it. Now they are not responding to my emails and this is all delaying my money."

Aviva Car Insurance Reviews.co.uk

Customers rate Aviva quite poorly at Reviews.co.uk with a score of 2.1 out of 5, but this is based on a very small number of customers so we wouldn't rate it as reliable. Reading the reviews, we noticed complaints about high renewal premiums and unsatisfactory handling of claims.

"Been a multi car customer for 8 years and always been told by them when I rang up to renew keep on multicar as works out cheaper. Very surprised this year when our quote came back at over a £1000 so I put our cars in individually and they came back £500 cheaper so why would they promote multicar as being cheaper."

"Good price initially for car insurance for two years, however renewal price was way above market average."

"Have been an Aviva customer for years - made a claim on my fleet policy for a car accident which meant the car was written off and guess what they won't payout enough to buy a like for like replacement when you can't find any car at the value they place on it - sticky fingers when it comes to paying out and it's only then you know what you paid for."

Aviva Car Insurance Charges and Fees

Aviva charges £38 plus tax to cancel your policy after the initial 14-day window (less than the average cost of cancelling car insurance) and also if you cancel within the window if your cover has started; but there's no cancellation fee to cancel during the cooling off period if your cover has not started yet. Changes such as adding a driver or a change of address cost £18 plus tax to make over the phone and are free to make online through the customer portal.

As always, you'll also have to pay any outstanding premium for time you were covered (this could mean getting a refund if you paid upfront), which in Aviva's case is based on the number of days left in the period of insurance.

Important Aviva Car Insurance Phone Numbers

Car insurance customers can reach Aviva customer service 7 days a week, on Monday to Friday from 8am to 8pm and Saturdays 8:30am to 5pm and Sundays and bank holidays from 10am to 4pm.

Policy Documents

To read about the full details of an Aviva policy, including what's covered and exclusions, read through the Aviva car insurance policy documents here.

How Does Aviva Compare?

Responding to reader requests, the team at NimbleFins has put together some direct car insurance comparisons, considering features, prices, customer service and more. These are particularly useful for motorists trying to decide between two competing quotes. Use these guides that compare Aviva to other top brands to help you understand which might provide the better product for your needs.

Other Car Insurance Reviews

If you'd like to compare Aviva car insurance to other options in the market, see some of our other car insurance reviews below: