Billy Fuccillo, Kia Soul transform driving in Southwest Florida

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Billy Fuccillo, Kia Soul transform driving in
Southwest Florida

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  illy-fuccillo-kia-soul-transform-driving-southwest
  -florida/472714001/

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The man who transformed the cars people buy,
drive or see on the roads of an entire region
wore dark slacks and a red Tommy Bahama
shirt. Billy Fuccillo beckoned. Come and check
out mine, Fuccillo said of his white Kia Soul,
similar to the 96 new ones available on his lot.
His car featured an upgraded, 201 horsepower
engine, leather seats, a navigation system and a
panoramic sunroof. Of all the manufacturers Ive
represented in more than 30 years, the Soul is
the only car that appeals to 18- and 19-year-olds
and 78- and 80-year olds, Fuccillo said. People
who are 52 like the Soul. People who are 32.
People who are 18. People who are 80. Prior to
Fuccillo Kia opening in December, 2010 at 404 NE
Pine Island Road, in Cape Coral, no Kia-branded
cars made the top 10 list of new, registered cars
in the combined areas of Charlotte, Collier,
DeSoto, Glades, Hendry and Lee counties.   Every
year since 2011, at least three and sometimes
four the Soul, Optima, Forte and sometimes the
Sorento have made the top 10 for new cars
registered in those six counties, according to
data gathered by IHS Markit, a Michigan-based
marketing firm. Between opening more than six
years ago and mid-July, Fuccillo Kia has sold
36,850 new cars. Of those, 24 percent, or 8,965,
have been Souls. Kia corporate verified
Fuccillos claim that the Cape Coral dealership
is in fact the worlds largest Kia dealer in
terms of volume. Consider Kia Soul ranked 29th
of the nations top 398 new cars sold in 2016.
The Kia Optima ranked 36th. But in Southwest
Florida, those cars ranked sixth and fifth,
respectively, according to IHS Markit.
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Gender-wise, 53 percent of the region's Soul
drivers are female, and 47 percent are male,
according to IHS Markit. Younger people like the
car because its cute, said Greg Hood, general
manager of Galeana Kia, which also sells the
Soul. Older people like the car because its
practical. Greg McCarter, 52 and from Cape
Coral, stands 6 feet and weighs 450 pounds. He
and his wife, Calondra, rented a Soul for a 2015
cross-country trip to California instead of their
Toyota Sequoia, which gets 17 miles per gallon on
the highway to the Souls 30-31. I didnt think
I was going to fit in it, because Im a really
big guy, McCarter said of the Soul. But once I
got in it Ive got all kinds of pictures of
every state that I was in with that Kia. This
year, McCarter bought a 2017 Soul from Fuccillo
for 20,000. The Kia Soul demographics also
include the 6-foot-3 Fuccillo, 61, who
declares ad nauseam in numerous television and
radio commercials and flyers that his cars
are HUUUUU-JA! The marketing major, psychology
minor and former tight end for the Syracuse
University football team, drives his Soul when
visiting Cape Coral from his Tampa home. He owns
five Florida dealerships with a sixth in the
planning stages for Clermont. He also owns 24
dealerships in upstate New York, where he sells
more than a dozen brands of cars, including the
Kia. You have an exceptional dealer in one area
who does an exceptional job with one brand, said
Tom Libby, an automobile analyst for IHS Market.
That can raise the volume for a model or brand.
It might be a part of the country that gravitates
to a certain concept. Four-wheel drive vehicles
traditionally do very well in mountain areas, for
example. In the case of the Kia Soul, its most
likely related to an exceptional dealer
performance. Now I will say that the Kia Soul
does well across the country, but its not in the
top 10.
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The beginning In the fall of 2010, Fuccillo and
Percy Vaughn, now the executive director of the
southern region for Kia corporate, had dinner in
Orlando. They discussed Fuccillo entering the
sales market for the Korean brand in Southwest
Florida, having had success in upstate New
York. At the time, Cape Coral was at the
epicenter of the nations housing crisis. The
economy was in shambles. Kia and Fuccillo took a
gamble during a critical time at a location that
had been an out-of-business Saturn dealership.
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Hes one of the most unique guys in the entire
automotive industry, Vaughn said. He said, I
think I can make a big splash in this market. He
came in and never looked back. With Billy, when
he does these promotions, people come from as far
away as Miami or Tampa. They would drive down to
buy a car from him, even though we had other
dealerships in those areas. In May of 2012, less
than two years after opening, Fuccillo had a
concert on the Cape Coral lot. He hired the
classic rock band, Styx, which had top 40 hits
such as "Come Sail Away."  The event drew
thousands of fans. Fuccillo said he sold dozens
of cars. Billy Fuccillo said at the start of each
year, he sets a marketing budget, usually about
350,000 to 850,000 a month. Hes very
aggressive, Libby said. Hes motivated. Hes
very shrewd. That concert you mentioned probably
drew an audience that was a good fit for the
Soul. In 1996, Fuccillo had Robbie Knievel, son
of daredevil Evil Knievel, jump his motorcycle
over 19 cars outside his Adams, New York,
dealership. Fuccillo said he sold a record 523
cars in one day. When I got out of college, I
went to a Chevy dealer in Buffalo, looking for a
job in sales, Fuccillo said of 1978. He was
turned down three times. The fourth time I went
back, they finally hired me. Big man, big
personality Fuccillo worked his way into buying
dealerships. He once bought a Hyundai store in
Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he went by the
handle Billy Fernandez and did his H-U-G-E!
catchphrase. He said he bought the bankrupt store
for 25,000 and sold it two years later to Utah
Jazz owner Larry Miller for 7 million.
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Xavier Villarreal, a Fort Myers High School
graduate and Hall of Fame football player there,
worked in sales and then as a manager at Sam
Galloway Ford in Fort Myers. In late 2010, he
applied to be the general manager of Fuccillo
Kia. Fuccillo told Villarreal he wanted him to
train in Rochester, New York, and to pack his
bags. Villarreal said he hadnt had time to book
a flight yet. Who do you think I am? Fuccillo
told Villarreal. Ive got my Lear jet waiting
for you at the airport. Thirty minutes later,
Im 10,000 feet in the air, taking off and
heading to New York, Villarreal said. I spent
four weeks there. I never saw all of this coming.
I know a lot of people in the community. I know
what this community is about. But I never foresaw
it being on the scale that it became on a
day-to-day basis. He has a heart of gold. I know
sometimes people wish he could do more. Theres
always somebody in need. But with what he does
for our customers 70 to 80 percent of our
customers come back and buy another car from
us. The competition  The Kia brand already
existed in the region prior to Fuccillos
arrival. Galeana Kia, at 14483 S. Tamiami Trail
in Fort Myers and Airport Kia at 3325 Westview
Drive, Naples, each opened in 1996. Both
dealerships compete for sales against Billy
Fuccillo but appreciate him as well. I love
him, said Greg Hood, general manager of Galeana
Kia for the past two years. When I was offered
this job, my boss said, The No. 1 Kia dealer in
the world is about 8.5 miles from you. When I
came to the store, I knew that Kia products were
so well-branded in our market that I couldnt
fail. Billy Fuccillo came to town and raised
awareness. He spent an enormous amount of money.
Weve also been a beneficiary of that.
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He has a tried-and-proven formula. He floods the
market, and they respond to it. The difference
between him and me is, first of all, its not my
money. Hood said at first, Fuccillo outsold
Galeana Kia at a 10-to-1 clip. That has been
narrowed, he said, to about 2.5-to-1. But Galeana
Kia doesnt have to beat Fuccillo Kia to be
successful, Hood said. His method was to focus
on new car sales, Hood said. He didnt care as
much about used cars. We dont do it that way.
Our desire is to sell both, because theyre both
good
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Lots of Soul The Soul base model starts at
16,100 with a manual transmission and 18,795
with an automatic, although the dealership has
various incentive programs that could drop those
prices. The new, fully loaded, Exclaim model
Fuccillo drives goes for about 26,500, minus
incentives. I love the car, said Francesca
Simonelli, 46, a Cape Coral yoga instructor. She
has bought two Souls from Fuccillo, a green one
in 2012 and then a gray one last summer. I love
the look of it. Its all very practical for
me. My credit was shot. I had filed for
bankruptcy. I knew if anybody was going to get me
a car, it was going to be that guy. Hes in it
for the money, obviously. He was going to make it
work. It was like a dream come true. Lisa
Terrill, 44, and the manager of the Bayfront
Bistro restaurant on Fort Myers Beach, bought her
green Soul from Fuccillo four years ago. Her
Volkswagen Passat had been totaled in an
accident, hence the need for a new car. Her Soul
from Fuccillo included a trip to Miami Beach with
a one-night stay in a resort and a party, another
of the dealerships many promotions. At first, I
was kind of annoyed by all the commercials,
Terrill said. But when it came down to it, they
had a good reputation or so many wouldnt be
purchasing it from them. I will tell you this, I
would take that car a million times on a road
trip. Its a smooth ride. Its very roomy on the
inside. Its like a SUV, really, but with great
gas mileage. McCarter, Simonelli and Terrill all
said they had poor credit at the time of their
purchases. Billy Fuccillo Kia found them loans
ranging from 72 to 75 months at interest rates
between 4.9 and 6 percent. The business of buying
and selling cars worked out for all parties.
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Working the room When Billy Fuccillo visits his
Cape Coral dealership, he does not keep a low
profile. He works the showroom, posing for
pictures with potential buyers. He hams it up
with the sales staff. In his office, Fuccillo, a
New York Yankees fan, has some sports memorabilia
and posters and a framed photograph of Robbie
Knievels motorcycle jump. Fuccillo defended his
dealerships practice of selling cars to
customers with low credit scores. Hes aware of a
negative article about that practice that has
been floating around on Facebook. How are you
going to get people financed? Fuccillo said. I
think we did a lot of things to get the community
turned around, and they in turn, helped us. Sell
cars, thats what were here to do. We dont
know what transpires in their life. We work real
hard to get them financed. So many people are
living week-to-week. We find them the best rates
we can. Fuccillo finished a photo shoot and then
an on-camera interview. At the end, he was asked
to do his famous catchphrase. Catchphrase? What
catchphrase? Fuccillo said, before looking into
the camera and getting back into character.
Southwest Florida, its gonna be
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