In today’s auto industry, success is no longer just about selling cars. It’s about navigating tariffs, managing multi-brand relationships, recruiting skilled technicians in a shrinking labor pool, and making smart acquisitions while preserving a hard-won culture. Few embody that challenge — and its possibilities — better than Eddy Allen, Director of Sales for the Kaplan Auto Group.
Born into one of New England’s most storied automotive families, Allen represents the third generation of a legacy that began modestly in 1948, when his grandfather, Jake Kaplan, opened a small used car lot on Broad Street in Providence, Rhode Island. In the seventy-plus years since, the family business has expanded across three states, representing brands as varied as Land Rover, Lexus, Toyota, Subaru, Volkswagen, and Mercedes-Benz.
Today, Kaplan Auto Group operates seven stores across Rhode Island, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. Yet it remains, at its core, a family business — one built on a long-standing philosophy that while brands evolve, customer relationships must remain constant.
Unlike some who inherit a legacy, Allen arrived at his role the old-fashioned way: through relentless work. Washing cars at 12, apprenticing in parts and service during his teenage years, cutting his teeth in sales during college breaks. After college, he dove full-time into dealership life, working his way through nearly every department before rising into executive leadership.
But much of the foundation was already laid by his mother, Sheree Kaplan-Allen, daughter of the founder and a force in her own right. After Jake Kaplan’s death in 1991, it was Sheree who took the reins in 1993, becoming one of the few women to lead a dealership group at a time when the industry was still overwhelmingly male. She expanded cautiously but smartly — establishing new locations, deepening manufacturer partnerships, and cultivating a customer-first culture that is still the group’s calling card today.
“She was there every day,” Allen says. “She didn’t just run the business. She built the standard for how the business should be run.”
If Jake was the risk-taker and visionary, Sheree was the tactician, balancing growth with consistency. Her decision to add brands like Subaru, Toyota, and Mercedes-Benz at key moments wasn’t just opportunistic; it reflected a strategy to diversify the group’s portfolio without diluting its culture.
That instinct — measured but ambitious growth — is what today defines the Kaplan approach. In an industry where larger dealership groups are aggressively acquiring stores to buffer against market volatility and manufacturer pressure, Kaplan Auto Group has kept pace in its own way. The group has grown from two stores in Rhode Island to a well-rounded collection of dealerships, carefully clustered within manageable distances to maintain operational control and personal oversight.
“Adding a store isn’t just about buying volume,” Eddy says. “It’s about whether we can extend the culture we’ve built. If we can’t do that, it’s not the right fit.”
Acquisition has become a key theme in the broader dealership landscape, with national and regional groups scrambling to buy smaller independents. Margins on new car sales are slimmer than ever, electrification is upending service revenue models, and manufacturer expectations around facility upgrades and sales targets are growing more intense. Owning multiple rooftops — especially with diverse brands — offers a buffer against market swings and shifting consumer tastes.
For Kaplan, the diversification has paid off. Today the group’s lineup stretches from high-volume brands like Toyota and Subaru to luxury stalwarts like Land Rover and Lexus. It is a mix that offers resilience in a changing market.
Yet even the most careful planning can’t insulate against global shocks. Recent tariff uncertainty — especially on European imports — has made inventory management a delicate dance. In the luxury segment, where many of Kaplan’s brands operate, even a small shift in consumer sentiment can ripple through months of sales projections.
“Tariffs introduce uncertainty, and uncertainty is harder than bad news,” Allen says. “If you know things are bad, you can plan. When you don’t know, you have to be even more disciplined.”
Rather than overextend or react emotionally, the Kaplan group has remained conservative in its inventory planning, focusing instead on core principles: controlling what they can control, doubling down on customer experience, and keeping their financial house in order.
Their recent decision regarding Jaguar is a case study in that discipline. After decades of prominence as one of Jaguar’s most respected dealers in the U.S., Kaplan Auto Group made the bittersweet choice to step away from new Jaguar sales as the brand dramatically reshapes itself. With Jaguar moving toward a smaller, all-electric dealer network, and trimming its store count by more than half, the Warwick dealership will no longer sell new Jaguars.
Yet the connection won’t be fully severed. For at least the next five years, the store will continue to provide Jaguar OEM parts and warranty service, ensuring that longtime customers aren’t left behind.
“It’s not easy,” Allen says. “Jaguar was how we started. It’s part of who we are. But the brand is going in a new direction, and we respect that. Our focus is on doing right by our customers and adapting to the future.”
The future, in Allen’s view, will belong to those who balance new realities — electrification, changing mobility habits, evolving customer expectations — with the timeless basics of service, trust, and relationship-building. And that balance, he believes, will always come down to culture.
Kaplan Auto Group has built a reputation not just for selling cars, but for creating an environment where employees want to stay. That, too, is becoming rare. In a time when dealership turnover costs the average store hundreds of thousands of dollars a year in lost productivity, Kaplan’s commitment to mentorship, internal promotion, and culture pays dividends far beyond the balance sheet.
“You can throw signing bonuses at technicians all day long,” Allen says. “But if they don’t love the culture, they won’t stay. Loyalty is earned every day.”
That belief extends to customers as well. Whether selling a Toyota Corolla or a Range Rover Autobiography, Kaplan Auto Group’s north star remains the same: make the experience exceptional, make the customer feel valued, and earn loyalty the hard way.
Now serving as Vice Chair of the National Retailer Cabinet for Jaguar Land Rover North America, Allen is helping shape dealer relations for one of the industry’s most prestigious brands. But day to day, you’re more likely to find him at the Norwood store, talking to sales managers, walking the lot, or checking in on service advisors.
“I still love being on the floor,” he says. “That’s where you learn the truth about your business — not in reports, not in meetings. You learn it talking to the people who actually work with your customers.”
In that way, the Kaplan Auto Group remains true to its origins: a family business, scaled up, but never sold out. A business where every car still carries a story, every relationship still matters, and every decision — from taking on a new brand to letting one go — is made with one eye on history, and the other on the road ahead.
“We’re lucky,” Allen says. “We have a legacy. But we also have a responsibility to honor it, and to keep building on it. That’s what keeps it fun. That’s what keeps it alive.”