A row over dealership rights could lead to a permanent parting of the ways for Malaysia’s Oriental Holdings and Honda.

Oriental was sole distributor for Honda cars until last July, when Japan#;s second biggest carmaker took back those rights to form a local unit, giving it direct involvement in Malaysia#;s market.

As a result, Oriental#;s retailing arm Kah Motor Co Sdn Bhd had to share sales of Honda cars with other retailers. Oriental was left holding 15 per cent of the joint venture DRB-Oriental-Honda (DOH).

The new squabble centres on accusations that DOH has been telling car buyers that Kah Motor has ceased to be part of the Honda dealer network in Malaysia.

A Honda official said the issue was a misunderstanding, which has since been cleared up.

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However, a source close to Kah told the Singapore Business Times: “Kah Motor has a dealership contract with Honda until the end of June 2003. But when it expires, there may be no more dealership. Kah Motor may not renew it.”