Stuttgart - Daimler is to idle factories for five weeks because world sales of its Mercedes cars have slumped, a newspaper reported on Sunday, quoting a company spokesman.

The report came as Germany's other main premium car manufacturer, BMW, announced a four-day standstill at one of its car plants, in Leipzig, eastern Germany, amid signs that the world recession will be worse than so far feared.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said the Mercedes closure would begin in mid-December, but gave no precise date. It said stocktaking would take place on December 12 and plants would not re-open before an annual holiday break at Christmas. Plants re-open on January 12.

New Delhi: It’s certainly not a good news for those who wanted to purchase Maruti this Diwali. India’s largest carmaker Maruti Suzuki has announced an increase in prices of its selected models by upto Rs 6,000 just ahead of Diwali. The price hike on select models would range between Rs 2,000 and Rs 6,000.

In a press release, the company said, “'The company has announced a marginal price hike of between 0.7 per cent to 1.1 per cent (between Rs 2000 to Rs 60000) in the ex-showroom prices of its cars.”

The price of the entry model ‘800cc’car have been hiked by Rs 2,000, while ‘Alto’ will cost Rs 2,500 more.

Tokyo - Operating profits of Japan's second-largest carmaker Honda Motor Co are likely to drop sharply owing to the yen's strengthening against the dollar, a newspaper report said Saturday.

The Nikkei business newspaper reported that Honda's operating profits are expected to drop by about 40 per cent to between 550 and 580 billion yen (5.8 to 6.15 billion dollars).

At the beginning of the business year, which runs until March 31, 2009, Honda had projected operative profits of 650 billion yen, but revised it downwards in April to 630 billion yen.

Stockholm - Swedish heavy-vehicle maker Volvo on Friday reported a 37-per-cent drop in pre-tax income for the third quarter of 2008, citing the economic downturn in key markets.

Pre-tax income was 2.89 billion kronor (370 million dollars), compared to 4.57 billion kronor in the corresponding period 2007 for the Volvo group, excluding the Ford-owned car division.

Net sales were up 2 per cent to 69.6 billion kronor, while net income fell 36 per cent to 2 billion kronor.

New York - The country's third largest auto maker Chrysler Thursday reported losses of more than 1 billion dollars in the year's first half, with second-quarter losses of 565 million dollars.

Chrysler is in the midst of merger talks with General Motors after Germany's Daimler firm sold 80 per cent majority share to Cerberus investment company earlier this year.