AUTOS: Ten Years Is Enough

Few U.S. companies have been hit harder by the recession than Chrysler Corp. Its losses have mounted—$94.1 million in the first quarter of 1975—and so has the pressure on its chairman, Lynn Townsend. Vacationing in Hawaii last month, Townsend decided that at 56 he had struggled with the problems of the nation's third largest automaker long enough. Last week he turned over the wheel to his hand-picked successor, John Riccardo, 51.

Like Townsend, Riccardo is a former accountant (both came into Chrysler from the auditing firm of Touche Ross) who has a reputation for being a cold-blooded cost cutter. Riccardo's...

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