WHY THE ISLAND AUTO GROUP SEES COMMUNITY SUPPORT AS PIVOTAL TO THE BOTTOM LINE
BY JESSICA JONES-GORMAN • PHOTOS BY AMESSÉ PHOTOGRAPHY
When I s l and Auto Group recently signed a multi-million dollar deal to purchase nine Staten Island-based automobile dealerships in Grasmere and Dongan Hills, each formerly owned by the Manfredi family, there was a discernible shift in the borough’s landscape of automotive sales and service.
“We maintain the utmost respect for what the Manfredi family has built on Staten Island,” noted Marcello Sciarrino, a principal partner with Island Auto Group, which also owns three New Jersey dealerships as well as one in Rockland County and another in Yonkers. “But we intend to put our own stamp on the borough’s car business.”
The Auto Group’s Staten Island holdings include Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Subaru, Kia, Toyota, Volkswagen, Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Mazda, and Fiat brands. At each of those dealerships, partners Sciarrino, Josh Aaronson, Mike Rizzuto, David Baron, and Ronald Baron are pooling decades of automotive experience to find a formula that truly fits.
“We pride ourselves on how our staff interacts with customers,” Sciarrino said. “We know the car buying experience as a whole is not something people necessarily love to do; it comes with this stigma of being a troublesome ordeal—our goal is to take the pain out of buying a car. We want to take out the haggling process, make sure our sales reps are knowledgeable about and certified in the brands they sell, and make use of the latest technologies in all of our stores to help with ease of transaction.”
To facilitate all those endeavors, there’s been an investment of millions in capital improvements—revamping showrooms and service departments across all nine of the auto group’s brands. The partners have also dedicated themselves to providing community outreach—a pledge which is evident in the company’s detailed mission statement.
One of the Auto Group’s first philanthropic pursuits was establishing a charitable partnership with Staten Island University Hospital.
“When my daughter was young, she was a burn victim treated at SIUH,” Sciarrino said. “We are very blessed that she is healthy and perfect today, and the care she was given and the time she spent at the hospital made me realize what wonderful and important service our local hospitals provide.”
So, in October, in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, the partners donated a sum of $25,000 to SIUH’s newly launched Comprehensive Breast Center.
“So many of our family and friends have been affected by breast cancer, so we felt this would be a wonderful tribute,” Sciarrino said. “We have state-of-the-art care being provided right here in our own neighborhood; we wanted to support it and hopefully encourage other businesses and individuals to do the same.”
The donation is in line with Island Auto Group’s commitment to borough-based charities: it has pledged to support local organizations and families, making regular financial contributions to groups in need, and donating one car each month to a community member or association. (A website dedicated to the company’s charitable giving, IslandAutoCares.com, was launched to help community members donate or apply for assistance.)
“When Josh, myself, Michael, David, and Ron started to talk about what we wanted this business to be, we instantly began a dialogue about the tight-knit community that Staten Island represents,” Sciarrino explained. “We felt the best way to work here was to be involved. We want to give back to the community that supports our success. And as a large employer in this borough, we really hope that we can help to effect change.”
Sciarrino and partners are currently working with Sacred Heart school and PS 78 in Stapleton, organizing car drives and collecting money to donate to the school and church. They are also one of the sponsors for the annual Cops for a Cause golf outing, and will be donating a Dodge Caravan to the FDNY in honor of Lieutenant Matthew Ambelas, who died in a Brooklyn fire in 2014.
“The car will be used to take ill firefighters to cancer treatments or to transport families who have sick children,” Sciarrino said. “We all felt it was an honorable way to launch our vehicle giveaway program. People also can visit the site to nominate a friend or neighbor who would be seriously impacted by receiving a new car.”
The dealership is additionally involved in a number of food drives and blood drives, and even employs an Island Auto Group Street Team that goes to community events and offers Island residents various giveaways.
“Together with Ally Auto, we sponsored a movie night on Forest Avenue where we gave away 200 free movie tickets to theatergoers, for example,” Sciarrino said. “People were like ‘What’s the catch?’ but we know it’s those small things like taking your family to a movie that can be so ridiculously expensive. As one of the biggest employers on Staten Island, we are in a position to help.”
For the partners, helping others is also just common sense.
“Philanthropy is a part of our business,” Sciarrino concluded. “We are very values driven, and committed to working with any organization doing charitable work. We might sell cars, but we are community members who care first. Helping our neighbors in need is more fulfilling than any sale we could ever make.”
Island Auto Group
1257 Hylan Boulevard / 718.697.6900
islandautogroup.com
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