It's a family affair at Ed Dena's Auto Center, where President Ed Dena plans to be succeeded by Ashley Dena, his daughter and current general manager. Photo contributed

In an automotive industry seeing owners selling to major auto groups nationwide, Ed Dena’s Auto Center in Dinuba is celebrating 20 years in business, still family-owned, local and ready to serve customers now and into the future.

Ed Dena, president of Ed Dena’s Auto Center, grew up in Tulare and has been in the automotive industry virtually his entire life.

Dena, who found his first job in high school as a furniture salesman, was selling cars by adulthood after his future brother in law convinced him to move to Oxnard and sell cars at his dealership. He did that for several years before returning to the Valley.

“I celebrated my 18th birthday in the car business selling cars,” Dena said.

Dena said Dinuba is the perfect place for his dealership, citing its family-oriented community vibe and proximity to larger population centers like Visalia and Fresno.

“We’re kind of in, I call it a magical place,” Dena said. “Dinuba is off the beaten path a little bit but we’re just 12 miles north of Visalia and we’ve got Fresno just to the north.”

Over the years, Ed Dena’s has committed resources to marketing both with radio and television campaigns; Dena said he recalls children coming to the dealership and singing the jingle from the radio advertisement.

With the advertising came the customers. With the extensive growth of Dinuba over the past two decades, Ed Dena’s Auto Center has grown with the community and will continue to grow early next year with the introduction of a newly expanded service center — an expansion that, once opened, will double the size of the existing service center.

“We’re trying to stay ahead of the curve so to speak with how fast change is happening in our business right now,” Dena said, citing the move to heavier electric-powered vehicles and their new sales of medium-duty trucks, including 4500, 5500 and 6500 Chevrolet truck models.

“It [the service center] was built incorrectly for the larger trucks to be able to be serviced,” Dena said. “We built the new shop with the intention of being able to work on these new customers that we’re selling vehicles to.”

The addition of lifts and other equipment will make the center not only more versatile and able to service larger vehicles and electric vehicles, but will also expedite service from the nearly 70-person team at Ed Dena’s

The project, despite the extensive interior, exterior and equipment work, has taken just one year to complete.

“I thought it was going so slow,” Dena said. “But once it actually broke ground and started it’s been a whirlwind out there.”

Dena customer satisfaction is a key focus with the expansion, but it will also provide more space and convenience for employees.

Dena said the dealership would not be what it is today without his employees, many of which are five, 10 and even 20-year veterans of the business.

“The goals were always not about profit or numbers or how many cars we were going to sell — it was to be the best,” Dena said. “What we defined that by was not just the best dealership for our customers but for our employees.”

After 20 years in business, the future is bright for Ed Dena’s. Ed’s daughter, Ashley, is the dealership’s acting general manager and is poised to take the reins of the business when Ed is ready to step down.

The family-owned aspect of the business is something Dena takes pride in, specifically in an industry that is seeing many dealerships sell to larger, expanding automotive groups.

“Every time I turn around somebody else has sold and it’s to a larger dealership group that’s kind of swallowing everything up,” Dena said. “We’ve always been family owned; I feel like it’s more of a personal relationship with customers.”

Dena, whose daughter recently welcomed her first child into the family, hopes the business can continue to thrive through future family generations.

In recognition of 20 years in business, Ed Dena’s Auto Center will celebrate its accomplishments throughout next year, hoping for a celebration at some point in early 2024.

“We’re planning to have a celebration in the spring,” he said, hinting at entertainment, a car show and other festivities. “We’ll have a big party one weekend to celebrate it — we’ll just wait for the weather to get nicer and the days to get a little longer.”