A car has been destroyed after rolling almost 40m over a cliff when the owner started the engine, then ducked back inside to grab something.

The Chery SUV is a write-off after rolling down a driveway, across a road and through a fence before plunging to the beach below at Hallett Cove, south of Adelaide.

Owner Marcus Mitchell was shocked to find his car gone after starting it to go to the shops, before going back inside his house for a few minutes, about 5pm on Tuesday.

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“I was in a lot of shock at the time,” he told 7NEWS.

“I was glad that no one was injured or got in the way of the car when it went over the cliff and ,of course, there was nobody in the car thankfully either.”

Mitchell told 7NEWS the vehicle had experienced battery problems since he bought it, and that was why he left it running when he went back inside.

“I had left it running after a jump start and gone inside to get a last-minute thing for mum before going up to the shop and when I came down the car was gone,” he said.

The task now is removing the Chery SUV from the beach, with a sheer cliff face stretching kilometres either side at Hallett Cove.

The Mitchell family hope their insurance will replace the SUV.