Niello Magic SACRAMENTANS HAVE PURCHASED CARS FROM THIS AUTOMOTIVE FAMILY FOR DECADES
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ho would have guessed that a 10-year-old boy fascinated by fixing cars would end up being the driving force behind one of the nation’s most respected automobile dealership conglomerates? Sacramento’s iconic Niello Company is nearly synonymous with luxurious cars, quality service, gleaming showrooms and super nice salespeople who even drive to your house to help program your garage. (It happened to me!) That 10-year-old boy was Louis Niello, the son of Italian immigrants who settled in San Francisco in the early 1900s. As a young man, he worked as a Packard mechanic in the Bay Area. During World War I, he took his machinist skills to San Diego’s Naval Air Station. After the war, Louis returned to his San Francisco job, this time as shop foreman. By 1921, he had opened an independent shop in San Francisco that specialized in Packard cars. Before long, it grew to feature the Pierce-Arrow luxury line of automobiles. Louis was on the road to bringing up four more generations of men in the car business. Next would come Richard Niello Sr., followed by three more Richards over the course of nine decades. (To be clear, the youngest, little Richie, is not in the car business
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as a duck hunter, an avid skier and the one responsible for “teaching” his young boys to capsize a sailboat yet keep it from sinking, all while Mom watched horrified from the shoreline. Graduating from UC Berkeley in 1943, then moving to Northwestern University, he served in the Navy in the South Pacific during WWII. He returned to work at General Motors, where he met Wes Lasher and Elmer Hubacher, two future partners who would take their automobile savvy to Sacramento. In 1955, Lasher and Richard Niello Sr. partnered to form the Volkswagen dealership in downtown Sacramento, while Hubacher went the Cadillac route. Lasher and Niello then formed separate Volkswagen dealerships.
To what else do they owe their success? “Developing the right product mix and the right company culture.”
Rick Niello just yet.) For good measure, there’s also Roger, the local politician, and David, who heads up the Bay Area arm of the family business. But for now, let’s start with Louis’ son, Richard.
He’s 95, but he thinks, jokes and acts like a man 50 years younger. “I feel great. I just hope I don’t fall asleep,” he says with a little twinkle. The natty dresser, complete with a crisp straw hat, jacket and tie, is quick to share stories about his days
Always looking for the next hot car, Richard added the Porsche franchise to his lineup the following year, creating what would become the longest-owned Porsche dealership in the country. Next he set his sights on the little-known Audi brand. In 1973, Niello brought yet another newcomer to Sacramento: BMW.