PETALING JAYA, Malaysia:

Proton has suspended one of its service centres in Terengganu for allegedly using non-genuine spare parts, overcharging and conducting repairs without recording it in the carmaker's online warranty system.

Proton Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed pledged to co-operate with the Anti-Corruption Agency (ACA) and also conduct its own investigations.

'If there is any wrongdoing, we will not hesitate to terminate the centre's services,' he said, adding that the centre was under Edaran Otomobil Nasional (EON), which is one of Proton's super-dealers.

Syed Zainal Abidin was responding to media reports on the Terengganu Government's preference for the Mercedes Benz over the Proton Perdana V6 Executive on the ground that the national car was too expensive to maintain.

He said Proton also found that only 35 of the 67 Proton Perdanas bought by the Terengganu Government were sent to authorised workshops.

He said of the RM1,071,668.82 maintenance costs reported by the Terengganu Government on the Perdanas, 93% was spent outside the the Proton service system.

'If a car is taken to an unauthorised workshop and non-genuine parts are used, there are bound to be problems.

'Furthermore, if repairs to a car are done outside the Proton warranty system, there is no way the company would be able to know what is going on,' he told a press conference.

Syed Zainal Abidin said preliminary investigations into the matter found that there was overcharging and second hand-parts being sold as genuine parts.

'In some instances there was also over-servicing of the car,' he said.