Daimler pulls 85,000 Benz off US roads

German luxury carmaker Daimler will recall about 85,000 Mercedes Benz C- and E-class autos in the US to fix a problem with power steering systems, the US traffic authority NHTSA said Monday.

"Other countries are affected as well," a Daimler spokesman told AFP. An anonymous official from the PR office of Mercedes Benz China said during an interview with the Legal Mirror newspaper that, at present, the office has not received any information concerning a recall in China.

A problem with the steering system's pump could lead to a loss of fluid, and "owners may not have sufficient control of the vehicle in areas, such as parking lots, where maximum power steering is required, increasing the risk of a vehicle crash," the NHTSA said.

The Daimler spokesman stressed that drivers retained control of their cars even in the events of power steering failures.

Mercedes planned to fix the problem in 2010 and 2011 models this month by retightening a faulty fitting, the NHTSA website said.

Auto recalls have increased this year since the world's biggest carmaker, Toyota, had to pay a record $16.4 million to settle claims that it hid gas-pedal defects blamed for more than 50 deaths in the United States.

On October 1, Daimler's German rival, BMW, said it would recall 350,800 high-powered BMW and Rolls-Royce vehicles worldwide because of brake problems that a BMW spokesman stressed were "without danger."