‘Huge’ vehicle seller Billy Fuccillo dies at 64

Archive: Billy Fuccillo fell into car gross sales after college or university and has in no way seemed again

A philanthropist and common sponsor of sporting events — primarily golfing — through the location, Fuccillo was very best acknowledged for showing up in Tv set and radio advertisements in which his outsized frame and booming voice went around the major to pitch offers.

“My mother tells me she mutes me when my commercials arrive on,” Fuccillo explained to the Times Union’s Paul Grondahl in a 2008 interview. 

A Prolonged Island child whose moms and dads had been both beauticians, Fuccillo performed soccer at Syracuse University. Immediately after graduation, he stated, he “didn’t have a task, was broke and was going to be evicted from my apartment. The only task I could get was marketing automobiles. I uncovered out I was good at it.”

He bought his 1st wholesale car or truck business in 1981 and his first new keep in Adams, just south of Watertown, in 1989.

Fuccillo loved acquiring the celeb procedure: “I was getting meal in Saratoga final evening and people retained coming up to my desk, asking for autographs, shouting ‘huuuuuge!’ I get that wherever I go. I figure ‘huuuuuge!’ turns off probably 20 percent. I you should not want to offend anyone, but you’ve bought to get their focus and get them in your store,” he mentioned.

He mentioned the magic formula of his achievement was his operate ethic. “I under no circumstances prevent,” he told Grondahl. “I have salespeople earning $35,000 and a couple of generating $200,000 a calendar year. The most profitable kinds are with a buyer or have a mobile phone in their ear all working day long.”

Fuccillo’s outsized, outgoing character helped much too, say those who labored with him.

“He was a large dude. He was a big temperament,” stated Kim Perrella vice president for Automobile Reveals and Member Relations at the Eastern New York Coalition of Automotive Vendors, Inc. in Albany.

Anywhere he was, people today realized that Fuccillo was in the space. He was also generous, Perrella mentioned. She recalled the time right after the 9/11 attacks in New York Metropolis when he reached out to fellow auto dealers who had absent to Washington D.C. and had been trapped there, and supplied to get them residence on his non-public jet. One more time at an vehicle dealer’s conference in New Orleans, he also supplied the use of his jet if somebody desired it.

Fuccillo also was active in charities, donating to causes ranging from community foods pantries to law enforcement memorials.

There was a sharp intellect guiding the boisterous temperament, nevertheless, Perrella explained, explaining that his in excess of-the-top advertisements proved efficient. “People today could laugh at him but, you know what? That guy was 1 of the smartest guys I have known simply because everybody understood his name. Internet marketing-wise, he strike it out of the park,” she stated.

He also had a mastery of functioning and juggling various dealerships, which is a feat in alone provided the complexity of functioning even a single modern store.

“A auto dealership is a really difficult small business it truly is four or five corporations in one particular,” Perrella claimed, outlining that vehicle suppliers are mend and physique stores as perfectly as retail services.

At its top, the Fuccillo title was affiliated with additional than two dozen dealerships throughout the Capital Region, Central New York and Florida.

Scalione, who was his attorney for a lot more than two a long time, remember’s Fuccillo’s generosity. “He was 1 of the most supplying folks I might at any time achieved. He made peoples’ life greater.

Scalione agreed that Fuccillo was a “excellent businessman” attempting new strategies and strategies, such as working contests in which family vacation cruises were provided absent.

“Billy always did issues that other men and women would not dare to do,” Scalione explained.

Fuccillo had downsized lately, though his son Billy Jr. has opened up car or truck shops of his very own.

In January Fuccillo offered 3 dealerships in the Syracuse space and two in the Rochester area to Matthews Auto Team which is centered in close proximity to Binghamton.

And final yr, he sold two dealerships in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral, Fla., to the publicly traded LMP Automotive Holdings corporation primarily based in Plantation, Fla.

He also offered his $2.5 million residence in Cape Coral, Fla., past fall according to Florida news studies. He had been dwelling in nearby Sarasota, Fla. at the time of his dying, experiences claimed.

Irrespective of his challenging operate, Fuccillo also knew how to enjoy himself.

“Business receives slow in December and January, so that is when I participate in. I go deep-sea fishing in Cabo (San Lucas),” he explained, referring to the Mexican vacation resort. “I caught two significant sailfish final 12 months and fought 1 of them for a lot more than an hour. You know you happen to be aged at the conclude of that dance. I also participate in a large amount of golf. I’m a 12 handicap.”

Fuccillo said he had been approached about working for office, together with for governor, but be hated politics. “No way. I’m not enrolled and I typically you should not vote,” he claimed.

He mentioned his finest day as a car salesman was offering 514 vehicles in a single day in Adams in 1996, when stunt motorcyclist Robbie Knievel — son of Evel — jumped “a bunch of cars and trucks.”

“Now, that was absolutely huuuuuge,” he stated.