VOLKSWAGEN AG workers headed home for an extended Christmas shutdown yesterday as Europe's biggest car maker struggles to maintain sales in the global recession.

In the northern German city of Wolfsburg, VW's birthplace, production ceased at 6am, leaving 44,000 employees with a three-week holiday, five days more than usual at this time of the year. The closures, ordered after sales declined 17 percent last month, will also idle 54,000 employees at seven other plants.

'How am I supposed to enjoy the extra time with my family?' mechanic Manfred Kroeter, 56, asked as he arrived for a late shift at Wolfsburg, where he's worked on the assembly line for 12 years. The father of two fears the vacation may foreshadow shorter hours and lower pay. 'It's hard to predict anything these days, least of all how the paycheck will pan out.'

The drop in demand is Wolfsburg's biggest challenge since 1993, when Volkswagen used a four-day workweek at reduced pay to cut expenses, Mayor Rolf Schnellecke said in an interview.

The city of 120,000 people 'remains totally dependent' on the car maker which, with its suppliers, accounts for about two-thirds of the working population of 90,000, said Siegfried Kayser, head of the local IHK industry group.

Wolfsburg hasn't suffered like Detroit, where the Big Three auto makers of the United States are teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, or Gothenburg, Sweden, where job cuts at Ford Motor Co's Volvo car unit and truck maker Volvo AB have devastated the economy.

The extended holiday at eight of nine VW plants pales in comparison with cuts at GM's Vauxhall unit in the United Kingdom, where workers can take nine-months leave at 30 percent of salary.

Volkswagen managed the best performance among major auto companies in Europe last month, with sales down 16 percent versus an average drop of 26 percent. General Motors Corp's European registrations tumbled 39 percent and Chrysler LLC's performance was so bad that it has only 0.4 percent of the market.

VW's ninth plant, an engine factory in Chemnitz, close to the Czech border, won't have longer holidays, spokesman Stefan Ohletz said. With 1,000 workers, the site will keep making fuel-efficient, four-cylinder engines, even on Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day 'to satisfy unbroken demand.'

Volkswagen also has a broader international presence than its closest European competitor, PSA Peugeot Citroen, and a model range including the Golf and Polo that's better suited to demands for fuel efficiency than offerings from German luxury-car makers Daimler AG and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.

Still, the lengthier winter break for thousands of workers is chilling to Wolfsburg leaders and auto-parts makers dependent on Volkswagen. At Kamei Gmbh & Co, a supplier of roof boxes and plastic car parts, business dropped by as much as 25 percent in October and November.