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...
The Kia Fuccillo person is missing.
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.
Is Fuccillo Kia closing its doors?
Billy Fuccillo’s “massive” era of selling vehicles in Cape Coral appears to be coming to an end.
Fuccillo’s name and branding would disappear as part of the sale, which is now in the process, even though the Kia vehicle dealership will stay at 404 NE Pine Island Road. According to records submitted to the Securities and Exchange Commission and confirmed by the prospective buyer, the same would apply to Fuccillo Kia of Port Charlotte, located at 202 Tamiami Trail.
Both dealerships would be acquired as part of the $36 million deal, and LMP Automotive Holdings of Plantation would take ownership of them.
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.
Fuccillo sold his dealerships, right?
Darwish, a former platform manager for Napleton Automotive Group and a minority investor in a New Jersey Audi dealership, claimed that after signing a contract with Fuccillo in August 2020, he experienced a number of delays. Because to COVID-19, his law firm had to close, and Darwish became ill.
Darwish claimed he spent two months on oxygen but made a full recovery. Billy Fuccillo Sr., the CEO of Fuccillo Automotive, passed away in June 2021.
Darwish claimed that over those 20 months, he slept very little as he tried to finalize the agreement by meeting with numerous manufacturers and banks.
He currently employs more than 400 individuals, all “extremely good employees,” according to Darwish.
The crew that came with this contract, he remarked, “is outstanding.” The squad is outstanding as a whole.
Prior to a year or two ago, the Fuccillo Automotive Group owned more than 20 dealerships, but it has since sold many of those locations. Early in 2021, the company sold Matthews Auto Group five dealerships in New York. Then, in March 2021, it sold LMP Automotive Holdings Inc. two Kia dealerships in Florida. It gave Morgan Automotive Group a Nissan dealership in Clearwater, Florida, in August of last year.
Around the time of the Darwish acquisition, Fuccillo Chevrolet-Buick at the Auto Mall in Adams and Fuccillo Chevrolet of Nelliston both closed their doors in New York. The franchises were canceled in late April and early May, according to a GM representative. Darwish bought the land for both locations as part of his deal.
He hopes to apply to revive the Chevrolet store in Adams and plans to use the locations as used-car dealerships.
Since he was 21, Darwish, 50, who claimed to be a college dropout, has dreamed to run a vehicle shop.
He said, “I gave everything to get here. “I put everything at stake to get here.”
He also wants more. Darwish stated that he plans to start searching for additional dealerships before the end of the year in order to expand his current collection of 90+ locations.
According to Darwish, Bob Morris of the Columbus, Ohio-based buy-sell firm Tim Lamb Group handled the seller in the deal.
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.
Currently, what is Caroline Renfro doing?
A lot of people have noted that Caroline is no longer flanking “Huge.” What has become of her?
What transpired with Caroline in the Kia advertisements? In the new ads, she has been replaced.
A: It’s amazing that Caroline’s absence from the local Fuccillo Kia of Cape Coral television advertising was apparent this month. That demonstrates how commonplace these locations have grown in Southwest Florida, especially with dealership owner Billy Fuccillo’s confrontational catchphrase, “It’s HUGE!”
Because they are so prevalent, Caroline, his marketing assistant, and Fuccillo are undoubtedly huge here. springing out on slick posters in mailboxes, roaring from every radio station, disrupting every TV channel, and spreading across the Naples Daily News. They cannot be overlooked.
Of course, this is the reason another blonde named Abby took Caroline’s place in this month’s advertising when she was absent.
“For two weeks, Caroline was on vacation. She wasn’t in the advertising because of this “Fuccillo stated over the phone from Syracuse, New York, the headquarters of his enormous auto company.
So, when she was away, the girl who fills in on our infomercials covered for her.
Unlike other lovely faces, Caroline Renfro is unique. She is a North Carolina native who works as a professional spokesperson. She has also promoted the Charlotte Bobcats basketball club and a supermarket chain that is located close to Charlotte. After seeing her in advertising for a Kia dealership in the Carolinas, Fuccillo recruited her.
Currently, Fuccillo and Renfro record roughly 35 TV ads per month. Since it opened in December 2010, these pitches have assisted the Cape Coral dealership in selling 7,500 to 8,000 vehicles annually, making it the top Kia dealer in the country, according to Fuccillo.
For August, the duo already had commercials taped. So, Caroline will return to broadcasting this week, according to Fuccillo.
Caroline may be noteworthy, but compared to Fuccillo’s King Kong persona, she is just second best. Imagine the reaction Fuccillo encounters as a result when he is out and about in Southwest Florida. More people will likely recognize him by his voice than by his face.
“I spend the entire night signing autographs wherever I go. Regardless of where I go “said Fuccillo. “They start the “Huge” chant as soon as I enter the Blue Martini.”
Fuccillo recalled a day when he was fifth in line at a Publix grocery store in the neighborhood when a man in the next line recognized him.
“Hey, Huge, how are you doing? he greeted. The four individuals in front of me all turned around, “explained Fuccillo.
The proprietor of the Fuccillo Automotive Group, which consists of over 20 automobile dealerships, claimed he doesn’t mind being referred to as “Huge.” It doesn’t actually refer to Fuccillo’s size, which is unquestionably enormous and tall. It’s not only about his $100 million reported net worth. Whether you like it or not, the focus is primarily on Fuccillo assimilating into Southwest Florida daily life. That is MASSIVE.