1956 saw the birth of Fuccillo in Greenport, Suffolk County, New York. He earned a marketing degree from Syracuse University in 1978. [1] After graduating from college, he worked at several auto lots. He went independent and started his own dealership in 1989. Over the years, the company expanded to have over 25 dealerships in Florida and New York. [2] distributing a range of brands. [3] His catchphrase, “It’s HUGE!” is frequently used throughout his advertising. [4] [5] Tom Park, who served as Fuccillo’s production director and the straight man in many of the company’s advertisements up until 2018, remarked that the line was first improvised by Fuccillo in response to the large turnout at a sales event. The two liked it so much that they adopted it as their trademark from that point forward. [6]
On June 17, 2021, Fuccillo passed away in his Florida home after months of deteriorating health and a protracted illness.
[7] Almost precisely one year later, Park passed away. [8]
In This Article...
What happened to Cape Coral’s Billy Fuccillo Kia?
Billy Fuccillo, a famed car dealer, passed away at the age of 65, ten years after Southwest Florida first felt his imposing presence.
According to CNY Central, the Syracuse Auto Dealers Association informed its members via email on Friday morning of Fuccillo’s passing.
Percy Vaughn, a Kia executive, and many others remember Fuccillo as a legendary vehicle salesman who always thought of others.
“Billy was a trailblazer. He accomplished feats that other auto dealers only imagine. Although he appeared in those advertisements, he was always giving back to the community “says he. “Man, Billy was a legend. Billy won’t ever be replaced.”
His Fuccillo Kia of Cape Coral was sold in March for $13.1 million, bringing an extravagant era that included rock concerts, cruise giveaways, and broken lease agreements to an end.
Fuccillo sold his Cape Coral house to Kevin Ruane’s family trust for $2.25 million last year after realizing that his health had deteriorated over the previous year. Kevin Ruane is a Lee County Commissioner and the former mayor of Sanibel.
He first gained notoriety in Southwest Florida because to his Pine Island Road Kia store and its advertisements that included his characteristic “Huuu-ja!” and pitch partner Caroline Renfro. After a short while, the Korean-owned corporation named his Kia dealership the best-selling in the entire world.
Long before the Pine Island Road boom, when Cape Coral was the focus of the national housing crash, and in a Southwest Florida still reeling from the Great Recession, he gambled on property that housed an abandoned Saturn dealership. He defended the dealership’s practice of catering to consumers with low credit ratings and didn’t hesitate to offer cars to individuals getting over the crisis.
Kia-branded automobiles have quickly climbed into the top 10 of new car sales in Lee County since the Fuccillo Kia car dealership debuted in December 2010.
“How are you going to finance people?” In a 2017 News-Press story, Fuccillo posed the question. “I believe we made a lot of efforts to help the neighborhood turn itself around, and they in turn assisted us. We’re here to sell automobiles, that’s what we do.”
He was the well-known figure in Southwest Florida, the one with the welcoming smile you could just walk up to and strike up a conversation with.
Sue Smith of North Naples, who met Fuccillo at a Ruth’s Chris Steak House happy hour in Estero a few years ago, is one who did exactly that. He was cordial and kind as Smith excitedly approached him to introduce himself. She remarked, “I was so happy to have met him, and I constantly tell people that he was really different in person from how he appeared on television. Smith intends to toast him when he eventually makes it back to the eatery.
What disease did Billy Fuccillo suffer from?
Fuccillo’s passing was disclosed to members of the Syracuse Auto Dealers Association through email on Friday morning, according to WSTM.
Following a stroke, Fuccillo’s health had deteriorated during the previous year, and he sold the Ruane family his property in Cape Coral, Florida, for $2.25 million, according to the Fort Myers News-Press. At the time of his passing, he was a resident of Sarasota, Florida.
Two dealerships in southwest Florida, located in Port Charlotte and Cape Coral, were sold by Fuccillo last year to the publicly held LMP Automotive Holdings company, according to the newspaper. According to the Albany Times-Union, Fuccillo sold Matthews Auto Group three New York dealerships in the Syracuse area and two in the Rochester area in January 2021.
The advertisements Fuccillo was most famous for on television and radio always ended with a loud voice.
“In an interview with the Times Union in 2008, Fuccillo stated, “My mum says she mutes me when my advertisements come on.”
“William Fitzpatrick, the district attorney for Onondaga County, told WSTM that he was larger than life.
“He was a large man. He had a strong personality, according to Kim Perrella, vice president of member relations and auto shows for the Eastern New York Coalition of Automotive Retailers, Inc.
Fitzpatrick claimed that Fuccillo, an enthusiastic golfer, attracted attention everywhere he went.
Every time we played and he made a shot, someone would exclaim, “That was HUGE! According to Fitzpatrick, Billy would wave and smile as if he were hearing it for the first time. “Just a wonderful man.
Before earning a degree in marketing, Fuccillo played tight end for the football team at Syracuse University, according to the News-Press. According to the Times-Union, he claimed to be broke and on the verge of being kicked out of his flat after graduation.
“Selling automobiles was the only employment I could find, Fuccillo admitted to the newspaper. “I discovered I was proficient at it.
According to WKBW, Fuccillo was also renowned for his generosity. Fucillo Automotive provided hundreds of meals at a time to front-line staff at hospitals around Western New York during the COVID-19 outbreak.
“People could make fun of him, but what the heck? Because everyone knew his name, that man was among the smartest men I have ever met, Perrella told the Times-Union.” In terms of marketing, he did an excellent job.
According to the News-Press, Fuccillo organized a Styx performance on his Cape Coral lot in 2012 that attracted thousands of the band’s fans and resulted in the sale of dozens of vehicles.
When he sold 523 automobiles in a single day in 1996, Fuccillo claimed it was his best day as a dealer. According to the press, he invited Evil Knievel’s son Robbie to jump his motorcycle over 19 automobiles in front of the Adams Dealership.
Caroline returned to Fuccillo Kia, but why?
Back in 2017, she left her position. Then Billy Fuccillo sponsored a competition to choose Caroline’s replacement, and McKinzie Roth won. Billy claimed Caroline called him and requested to return.
What ever become of the enormous automobile salesman?
SYRACUSE
The man who used a HUUUUUUUGE! on-air persona to promote fantastic discounts at his extensive network of car dealerships has passed away.
Billy Fuccillo passed suddenly on Thursday in Sarasota, Florida, after a protracted illness, his attorney told news sites in the Syracuse area on Friday. He was 65.
After graduating from Syracuse University, Fuccillo, a native of Long Island, remained in the region and established a network of dealerships in his honor.
Everyone would recognize a Fuccillo advertisement as one, regardless of whether they liked it or found it irritating.
The man’s physical stature, his voice, his attitude, his drive, his inventory, and the offers he promised clients were just a few of the significant things about him and his company.
Fuccillo said to The Gazette in 2009 that the term originated with a casual remark made to Tom Park of Tom Park Media, who occasionally worked with him in advertisements.
“It’s tremendous, Tom, I just turned to you one day and said. It’s enormous,’ Fuccillo exclaimed, and it blew up from there.
The showmanship appeared to please him. The majority of America pronounces the term as “huge,” whereas the New York City metro area occasionally pronounces it as “yooge.”
“Huge was hype, but it was memorable and truthful hype: His dealerships generated a lot of business.
The largest privately owned auto retailer in New York and the largest Kia dealer in the world, according to Fuccillo’s obituary, is Fuccillo Automotive Group.
At his auto mall near Watertown, Fuccillo once sold 500 vehicles in a single day, setting records for the most Hyundai and Kia sales in a month.
With success and celebrity came significant income, and Fuccillo earned a reputation for giving as well.
In 2017, Schenectady Mayor Gary McCarthy presented Fuccillo with the city’s keys in appreciation for the positive economic and charitable impact he had made in the area. Other areas also received similar support.
Domestic abuse prevention, the Salvation Army, the Center for Disability Services, the Quest For Grace Foundation, and the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern NY were just a few of the many, many causes and organizations he sponsored.
He supplied hundreds of meals at a time to front-line medical staff at hospitals in western New York during the worst of the COVID pandemic.
Who is the owner of Fuccillo Kia?
Prior to leaving her position in November 2017, Caroline Renfro sold vehicles for Fuccillo Kia for eight years through radio ads, TV commercials, and direct mail. She has since returned to the company in 2019.
Billy Fuccillo, a loudmouthed and “The Cape Coral Fuccillo Kia car dealership’s huge! pitchman, who has been in charge of it since 2011, hasn’t been on broadcast this year.
His employer refused to comment on whether he is stepping down to let his son with the same name to take on a larger leadership position or it is for health reasons (the story that he suffered a significant medical blow late last year is one I cannot confirm).
Fuccillo currently has 23 dealerships in New York, three in Florida, and four more are being built close to Orlando. Over the previous few weeks, I made several attempts to contact the general managers of Cape Coral, Port Charlotte, Clearwater, and four dealerships in New York in an effort to get some answers. They all ignored my calls and emails.
I just tried to contact the general manager at the Cape Coral dealership. He was too busy, I was told, so I walked away. Nobody else in the room had the right to speak.
I received emails from the Clearwater online sales manager. She claimed to have forwarded Billy Fuccillo Jr. my several communications. I tried to get in touch with him for weeks to find out what had happened to his father, but I never heard from him.
Fuccillo Sr., who often responds to my texts, hasn’t gotten back to me since October 11, when I last met him while reporting about land next to his Cape Coral store that Sam Galloway Ford owns but isn’t currently developing.
Between that time and the beginning of 2020, Fuccillo stopped making the advertisements. He generally shoots enough material in a single day to fill at least a month. Ad libs are used by him and his team.
Caroline Renfro, the sidekick, has continued to show up in advertisements ever since. Thaddeus Bullard joined her a month ago.
Bullard, who participated in football at the University of Florida and with the Florida Firecats of the minor league in Estero in the early 2000s, has since gained notoriety as “WWE star Titus O’Neil. He’s a Tampa resident.
I tried calling Kia’s south regional manager and sent an email to the company’s corporate communications department. When I wrote in 2017 about how Fuccillo Kia had changed the vehicles we drive in Southwest Florida, Kia corporate had a lot to say about it. The Cape Coral store was recognized by Kia Corporate as the best-selling Kia dealership worldwide.
In response to your inquiry regarding Fuccillo’s departure from the public eye, James Bell, director of corporate communications for Kia, wrote: “We (Kia Motors America) do not have a perspective to share on your question.”
As you are aware, Kia Motors America does not hire our dealers; rather, they are franchised members of our company. Hope that was useful.
A Catch-22 has always existed while writing about Fuccillo. The articles frequently receive a lot of readers and comments on social media, some of which condemn Fuccillo’s boisterous demeanor and others of which accuse me of giving him gratuitous exposure. Others add their appreciation or other displays of support.
I did sense some journalistic value because Fuccillo has been such a magnet for attention.
Gary Kuzmits, a newspaper reader from Naples, contacted me a few months ago to inquire about Fuccillo. I assured him that I would do everything in my power to respond. That this is the best I can accomplish right now makes me sad.
Kuzmits remarked of Fuccillo’s TV appearances, “For me personally, I get a pleasure out of it.
You heard him on the radio or saw him on TV every time you turned around. I have not heard or seen him for several months. It seems as though he vanished.
What became to the enormous Kia guy?
New York’s WATERTOWN (WWNY) – Billy Fuccillo, who became famous in the congested world of auto dealerships for his catchphrase “It’s going to be huuuuge,” has passed away.
Numerous media sites Friday morning announced Fuccillo’s death. Fuccillo passed away at his home in Florida after months of deteriorating health, according to CNY Central in Syracuse.
Fuccillo reportedly had more than 25 dealerships at his height, mostly in New York and Florida. This included a sizable business in Adams called the “Fuccillo Automotive Group.” According to CNY Central, he just sold five properties in Rochester and Syracuse.
He was a wonderful man. I believe that many people who only saw his advertisements did not come to know him in the same way that those of us who lived in the region did. Bob Simpson from the Adams Fire Department remarked, “You know, he was a part of the community.
According to Simpson, Fuccillo made significant contributions to the South Jefferson Central School athletic department as well as the fire department and other neighborhood organizations.
According to a biography on Wikipedia, Fuccillo was born in 1957 in Suffolk County. In 1978, he received his degree from Syracuse University.
According to CNY Central, he is survived by his wife Cindy and son Billy Fuccillo Jr. Details of the funeral are still being withheld.