PETALING JAYA, MALAYSIA: Proton has hotly denied claims that the cost of maintaining its Perdana model is high and reiterated that the fee charged is reasonable.

In a statement here yesterday, Proton said the maintenance cost depended largely on regular servicing at authorised service centres every three months or every 5,000km or as recommended by the manufacturer. It said the mileage per year and the driver's driving habits would also determine the maintenance cost.

According to the statement, each regular service was normally in the RM200(S$83) range. This included oil filter and labour but excluded parts and components, mechanical failure and collision repairs.

It added that the typical mileage for a car under normal usage was between 20,000km and 30,000km per year,

"During this mileage period, the average total maintenance cost of a Perdana V6 is estimated to be about RM2,300, based on records collated from authorised service dealers and branches," it said.

However, it said, cars aged more than four years that were heavily used without proper and regular servicing would incur higher maintenance cost.

"Proton would like to stress that it is not accurate to compare the maintenance cost of a one-year-old car to a high mileage four-year-old one, as the maintenance cost of the latter would naturally be higher," it said.

While it recognised that there were areas to be improved, Proton said its products were not of such sub-standard quality that they could affect the decision of a state government to buy other non-national makes.