Three-generation family business marks 50th year

The original Vincent Garage Inc. opened in 1963 on Forest Avenue in Rye, directly across the street from Rye Playland. The company had one tow truck and was an all-in-one gas and service station. Vincent Paniccia, the company's founder who had recently immigrated from Italy, woke up at 5 a.m. each day and did hand car-washes himself, at 99 cents a pop.

Today, 50 years and two generations later, and now based in Mamaroneck, the company has split into two separate businesses operated by Vincent's son, son-in-law and two of his grandsons. The company's remain connected not only through family and name, but by parking lots that connect the two businesses in an "L" shape on Fenimore Road and Center Avenue.

Vincent Service Station Inc., on 636 Fenimore Road, is operated by Vincent's son Anthony, and Vincent's grandson, Anthony Jr. That business handles the gas, towing and auto service. It's their trucks you may see recovering disabled vehicles or righting rolled over tractor trailers on Interstate 95. It now has the largest fleet of tow trucks in, Westchester County.

Vincent Auto Body Inc., on 425 Center Ave., is operated by Vincent's son-in-law Michael Lungariello and Vincent's grandson, Matthew Lungariello. That company handles body work and is a direct repair facility for several auto insurance companies.

Vincent, who died in 2007 at age 72, split the companies nearly 10 years ago. By then, the original Vincent's had moved from Rye to Hoyt Avenue and then to its current location on Waverly Avenue.

Vincent's daughter, Maria, and his daughter-in-law Antonella, are part of the business. Anthony Jr. and Matthew Lungariello, as well as Vincent's five other grandchildren, spent their teenage years helping out at the shop during summers. (Mark Lungariello, one of Vincent's grandsons, is now digital editor of the Business Journal).

Family members that came through the business started small. Michael Lungariello drove a truck, worked on cars and eventually made a name for himself as the man in charge of the body repair side of the company.

If pumping gas wasn't the most exciting job for them, they soon learned that once they mastered the basics, they could move onto more advanced tasks. For Anthony, Jr. he reached a milestone at age 17.

"I started pumping gas when I was 13," said Anthony Paniccia Jr. "When I turned 17, I got my license and hopped into a tow truck."

One aspect all of the family members learned was resiliency and seeing a task through to the end, according to Anthony Paniccia Sr. He remembers that his father, even in his later years, would head to the scene when there was a big truck accident that was blocking lanes on the interstate.

"He would say, 'Even if we have to cut the truck into pieces and carry it on our backs, we're gonna get it done,' " Anthony said.

In the early days when his father struggled to establish the business, he needed to get creative when he retrofitted dump trucks as tow trucks.

"The front of the tow truck would lift up when the back got too heavy," Anthony Paniccia Sr. said. "My dad used to put a steel bumper on the front of the truck and fill it with cement to even out the weight."

Not only did Vincent apply his ingenuity on the road, but Michael said he remembered his father-in-law getting creative while working on cars at the shop.

"He would replace the engine of the car using the strength of a tree limb to hoist the engine out of the car," Michael said. "It was basically using the concept of ropes and pulleys. We thought we were high tech."

These days, the company is a bit more high-tech, according to Matthew Lungariello.

"We do the body work using a computerized system," Matthew said. "When we first started we didn't have a spray booth, so we painted cars in the body shop behind a curtain. Now there is spray booths and a color matching system. There's a camera that scans the paint, matches the color piece by piece, makes estimates on each part and generates an invoice."

At the service station, the tow trucks are no longer balanced with cement. Out of the company's 17 tow trucks, none are older than 7 years old. The family businesses employ 45 people combined, and they tow and fix everything from senior service buses and police cars to trucks and ambulances. Though the companies are now separate, they remain unified and in more than just the parking lots connecting.

"Even though our name changed, we still do things for each other," Anthony Paniccia Sr. said. "Just like the saying 'two heads are better than one,' we think 45 heads are better than one. If there's ever a big situation or challenge, we always help each other out."

Outside of the business, Vincent was known as a local philanthropist. This month, the village of Mamaroneck board of trustees voted unanimously to dedicate the corner of Fayette and Fenimore as "Vincent Paniccia Avenue." A formal dedication ceremony will be set in the warmer months of 2014.

Vincent, who served as a former auxiliary police lieutenant for the village of Mamaroneck and Harrison and police auxiliary captain and range officer for Rye, jump-started a motorcycle police unit by buying the first bikes for the village of Mamaroneck's police station. He was also involved in putting retired police cars to use for the local D.A.R.E. program, a curriculum that teaches students to live drug and violence free lives.

Matthew Lungariello said his grandfather's influence could be best summed up by the reaction of mourners at Vincent's wake.

"Everyone had a story they wanted to share, even people who used to work for him as a teenager," he said. "People would say, 'this guy was more of a father figure to me than anyone else in my life.' Even people I never saw before in my life would say this."