Proton S70 maintenance costs – how it compares to the X50, Persona, Vios, City, Almera over five years
The Proton S70 was launched earlier this week and is offered in four variants with prices ranging from RM73,800 to RM94,800 on-the-road without insurance. Regardless of variant, the S70 is powered by a 1.5 litre turbocharged inline-three petrol engine, which is also used by the X50.
Rated at 150 PS (148 hp or 110 kW) and 226 Nm of torque, the port-injected mill is paired with a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission driving the front wheels. With the sedan and SUV sharing the same powertrain, are the maintenance costs for both similar too? Well, let’s find out.
As with past maintenance cost comparisons, a little disclaimer before we proceed. In addition to the S70 and X50, we’re also including Proton’s other sedan – the Persona – to illustrate the difference in maintenance costs when moving up a segment in Proton’s line-up.
The Toyota Vios, Honda City (excluding the hybrid variant) and Nissan Almera are also joining in because while Proton labels the S70 as a C-segment model, its price range puts it well within proximity of the Japanese sedans, which occupy the B-segment space.
At the time of writing, these figures were taken directly from the MyProton app as well as the official websites of the involved car brands. A price rundown for all the models mentioned here is as follows:
Comparing the S70 to the X50 first, the former is cheaper to maintain over 100,000 km/60 months by RM562.41. While there are many service items that are shared, the X50 has fuel filter changes every 20,000 km/12 months at a cost of RM83.80 each time, which the S70 does not require.
We should also point out that beyond 100,000 km/60 months, the X50 does require its drive and timing belts to be changed at 110,000 km/66 months at a cost of RM112.89 and RM195.16 respectively. The latter is also listed for the S70, but at 120,000 km/72 months, and there’s no drive belt change listed for the sedan.
The Persona is cheaper to maintain than both the S70 and X50, which isn’t a surprise given powertrain is less complex without any turbocharging. Over 100,000 km/60 months, the grand total is just under the RM4,000 mark, significantly less than the S70 (RM4,784.94) and X50 (RM5,347.35). If you’re considering ponying up the price difference to get a S70 instead of a Persona, it’ll be an extra RM181.40 a year in maintenance with the larger sedan.
What about the Japanese makes then? Looking at the maintenance schedules, the S70 is more expensive to maintain over 100,000 km/60 months than the Vios by RM234.88, which is around RM47 more a year.
The same is also true when comparing the S70 with the City, the former costing an extra RM465.17 (RM93 more a year) to maintain over 100,000 km/60 months. Keep in mind that the Vios and City both have naturally-aspirated engines and a CVT, and there are service items placed beyond 100,000 km/60 months.
For the Vios, a coolant change is needed at 160,000 km/96 months at a cost of RM123.50, while the City requires a fuel filter change at 140,000 km/84 months costing RM376.15, plus a coolant change at 200,000 km/120 months for RM81.36.
As for the Almera, it matches the S70 by having forced induction with its 1.0 litre turbocharged inline-three petrol engine that is paired with a CVT. The Nissan sedan’s maintenance schedule is quite different from the others, as the service interval (after the first 1,000 km/one month) is every 7,000 km/6 months instead of the typical 10,000 km/6 months.
The Almera also comes standard with alternate free maintenance service, so you won’t need to pay at certain intervals – some of the other models get free labour at specific intervals. If we narrow it down to a five-year timeframe, which would be 70,000 km/60 months, the total maintenance cost for the Almera is RM1,965.80.
That’s incredibly low, but if we expand the scope closer to 100,000 km, which the schedule ends at 98,000 km/84 months, the grand total goes up to RM4,140.90. It’s not an apples-to-apples comparison in terms of timeframe here.
As always, maintenance schedules are just a reference and do not reflect the actual cost of ownership, which factors in things like fuel that can depend on a car’s fuel efficiency as well as how frequent and far you drive.
To add, there are also wear and tear items like brakes and tyres that aren’t included as service items and can differ greatly in price. For instance, the S70’s wheels range from 16 to 17 inches in size, while the X50’s wheel sizes are from 17 to 18 inches. As such, it would be cheaper to replace the tyres on the range-topping variant of the S70 compared to the one of the X50.
There’s also road tax, which is RM90 for the S70, X50, Vios and City, all of which are close to 1.5 litres of displacement – the Persona at 1.6 litres also has a road tax of RM90. It’s just RM20 for the Almera with its 1.0 litre engine. Also note that car insurance premiums are typically more expensive for vehicles with high market values.
In summary, the S70 is cheaper to maintain over 100,000 km/60 months compared to its SUV sibling, the X50. This isn’t the case with the Vios, City and Almera, all of which have lower maintenance costs, but with significantly different powertrains.
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