Renaults were somewhat successful on both road and track, including the 1984 Espace launch, which was Europe's first multi-purpose vehicle, a dozen years before any competitor. However, Renault was losing a billion francs a month totaling ₣12.5 billion in 1984. The government intervened and Georges Besse was installed as chairman; he set about cutting costs dramatically, selling many of Renault's non-core assets (Volvo stake, Gitane, Eurocar and Renix), withdrawing almost entirely from motorsports, and laying off many employees. This halved the deficit by 1986, but Besse was murdered by the communist terrorist group "Action Directe" in November 1986. He was replaced by Raymond Lévy, who continued Besse's initiatives, slimming the company enough that by the end of 1987, Renault was more or less financially stable. However, while Besse was convinced that Renault needed a presence in the North American market and wanted to push forward with restructuring AMC, Lévy, facing domestic losses from Renault at home, and losses from AMC in the US, along with the political climate that led to Besse's assassination, decided to sell AMC to Chrysler that same year.