Billy Fuccillo, car dealer known for his “HUGE” ads, dies

In January, the Matthews Auto Group in Vestal announced the purchase of five Fuccillo auto dealerships in the Syracuse and Rochester markets in deal that became effective  Jan. 26. Matthews purchased three Fuccillo dealerships in Syracuse including Fuccillo Kia and Fuccillo Nissan of Clay, Fuccillo Hyundai in Syracuse and two dealerships in Rochester including Fuccillo Hyundai and Fuccillo Kia of Greece.

Calling hours are set for Thursday, June 24 between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the Thomas J. Pirro Jr. Funeral Home at 3401 Vickery Rd. in Salina. A funeral mass is set for 11:00 a.m. on Friday at Our Lady of Pompei/St. Peter Church.

2007 CNYBJ interview

In a 2007 interview with CNYBJ, Fuccillo said he was broke when he graduated from Syracuse University in 1978. After attending school on a football scholarship, he was without a job or even an apartment.

“It was crazy,” Fuccillo recalls. “I remember when I got out of college, they threw me out of my apartment and I had nowhere to go. I was dead broke so I started selling cars and I did really well, really fast.”

Fuccillo says he got into the car business because he didn’t want to work for a set salary each week; he wanted the chance to make more depending on how well he did.

Two years later, Fuccillo got into the wholesale end of the business and went to work for Fred Rainier Auto Sales, on Erie Boulevard in DeWitt.

“He gave me a checkbook and I went up and down [West] Genesee Street buying all the trades,” Fuccillo says, referring to buying traded-in vehicles, reconditioning them, taking them to auctions, and selling them.

Fuccillo received 50 percent of the profits from each sale and saved his money until 1989, when he purchased a Dodge store in Adams, N.Y., opened his first dealership, and created Fuccillo Automotive Group, today headquartered in Adams.