Why Choose California Dealer Academy Auto Dealer Training
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About California Dealer Academy

Our company has been doing small business consulting since 2008. Navigating any new busy can be a tricky landscape and having the proper guidance can be a key point to any business owner's success. In 2014, the business began to solely focus on setting up dealerships throughout the state of California. California Dealer Academy's focus is making sure that California dealers have access to prime education and, more importantly, proper guidance on how to setup their dealership in California and keep it running under the proper guidelines.

The foundation of the education you will receive at California Dealer Academy is the combination of knowledge based on where the owner received their initial education through a retired DMV inspector combined with 20 years' worth of real-world dealership expertise cultivated through a series of education and direct consulting. This mixture of DMV training and experience with working with large organizations throughout the automotive industry creates a unique understanding of the California landscape for dealers and combines real world development and experience to help navigate the operational struggles that owners experience.

Why choose California Dealer Academy?

  • Real world experience to help guide you through the best steps to becoming a successful retail or wholesale dealer in California.
  • Ongoing access to consultants with one of the best teams in California.
  • Learn how to navigate through the DMV test and gain real world experts to get your dealership off to a quicker, more successful start.
  • Get access to dealer auctions and learn the trade secrets to help save you time and money when going to dealer auctions.
  • Get access to compliance and operational procedures that will help set your dealership up for success and out of the hands of attorneys that go after car dealers for negligence.
  • Each class is taught directly by the owner that has 20 years of experience in the auto industry and learn directly from an MBA.
  • Get access to vendors and programs that can help streamline dealer operations and save dealership owners thousands.

About the Owner

Garrett started off with one of the goofiest names that you will ever see come from a company. In 2008, Garrett opened Ashes to Flame, Inc. with the understanding that he would need a DBA and that he would never change the corporate name if he was in business. The main reason was because at the time of formation, Garrett was homeless. The main reason for the corporate name was the knowledge that out of nothing, anything can be built if you keep working hard, regardless of the obstacles. That is why to him, each and every client is important because building a company from the ground up is the very foundation of his beginning and why he is passionate about the car industry-but even more -it's about help helping entrepreneurs to reach their personal potential.

Garrett Eddings, Owner, California Dealer Academy

Garrett Eddings started off as a tire tech and worked on vehicles from 16 years old. A passion for vehicles expounded into a love for the car industry and worked as a salesperson for various dealerships before starting his own dealership in 2012. In 2014, he got the opportunity to go work for a dealer training company based in Corona and went on to expand their operation to cover then entire state of California. Garrett was also able to bring the small business consulting side to the dealer training school and build on their current book of business.

Within a few years, the production from the Sacramento and San Diego office exceeded the production from the main office in Corona. With that, Garrett was promoted to the Director of Operations for the company and oversaw the entire operation up and through 2018 when he decided to begin his career with a virtual auction house in 2018.

Being one of the first employees on the west coast, Garrett was able to use his knowledge of the California dealer landscape to not only help with the expansion across the state, but also help thousands of dealers across the state help with buying vehicles, teaching people how to buy vehicles correctly and how to market them when it came time to sell them. After being the fastest territory manager to be promoted to a Regional Field Manager, Garrett became responsible for a lot of the operational needs of the virtual auction across the west coast. He became directly responsible for the expansion across California and Arizona, while lending his expertise to struggling markets up and down the coast.

This also allowed for expanded opportunities to help his students by increasing the resources which clients who had that attended the school and by his consulting clients as well. Through his time working for the digital auction, he received his Masters in Management and his double MBA in 2020.

Garrett continues to work in the digital auction landscape by helping with the development of the company's exclusive flooring line. He currently owns a private consulting firm that has helped open hundreds of dealerships across the California landscape and guided thousands of them throughout the course of his career. In 2022, Garrett made the decision to open his own school and combine the consulting firm and thus California Dealer Academy was born.

It's also important to make sure each client has the owner's cell phone number. Feel free to call Garrett at any time. 760.681.1757.