The trio of luxury cars from Imagine Lifestyles are selfie bait. The shiny chrome of the cars and the sparkle of skyscrapers are picture-perfect and people walking by take notice.
“These cars are like celebrities,” says Imagine Lifestyles CEO Ryan Safady. He and customer experience coordinator, Tom Messenger brought a Rolls-Royce Cullinan, Lamborghini Urus, and a BMW i8 convertible out for a spin. These cars, along with their fleet of high-end vehicles are all available to rent.
Imagine Lifestyles was founded in Miami 15 years ago by Safady and his cousin and co-CEO Jared Jukel.
“After a year or two, I thought we should advertise this in New Jersey. I’m from South Jersey,” Safady explains. “We started advertising in South Jersey and before you know it we became busier and busier. Then, we opened it up to New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia. It became bigger than we anticipated.”
Now, they have a collection of 20-40 luxury and exotic vehicles serving their North East market.
“The first car was a Bentley GTC convertible. I’ll never forget it,” Safady says. “It’s been replaced with new ones over and over again. Our goal is always to buy the newest one. I think that separates us from most in this business. It’s 2023. A lot of other places will have a 2015. All of the cars in our fleet, unless they’re a vintage car, are going to be practically brand new.”
Safady says the newest car is always his favorite.
“I love when a new model comes out and I get to check out all of the features and see what’s different about it. It could even be a vintage car, but something new to me and different is always what I want to drive,” he says. “It allows me to understand the vehicle so then when customers have questions I can give them the answer.”
“Once a car is rented from us it’s a fullon rental car,” Messenger says. “You can drive it wherever you need to go. We don’t restrict the cars in any way.”
But he says the experience is different from the typical rental service.
“We offer a lot more in the way of service. We’ll deliver the car to you if you need that. We can provide a driver if you need a driver for a portion of your rental or the whole thing. That’s the big difference for us; service,” Messenger says.
“Most of our clients are high-end clients. They’re anything from musicians to athletes. We’ve rented to dignitaries from other countries when they come in, executives, you name it,” Safady says. “The key is to, within reason, give them everything they want.”
“We have a client every year who vacations in the Hamptons and he’ll take a Ferrari or a Lamborghini from us for a month to a month and a half,” Messenger says.
“They want something similar to what they have at home.”
Imagine Lifestyles also cater to regular folks who want to make an event memorable.
“Right now we’re doing a ton of prom and wedding rentals,” Messenger says.
BEST. DAY. EVER.
The interior of the Rolls-Royce is just as luxe as the exterior. Purple leather details and twinkling lights on the ceiling that create a shooting star effect set it apart from the typical ride.
“It’s the little nuances. Sitting in that backseat it’s pure comfort and it’s also pure style,” Safady says.
The Rolls-Royce also has a powerful engine, but the ride is so smooth it’s easy to forget how fast we’re driving.
But luxury comes with a price. I ask Safady what the Imagine Lifestyles car collection would cost.
“It’s tough to say. We have 2 Rolls-Royce Cullinans. That’s a million,” Safady does a little bit of math on the spot. “I’m going to say we have between 5 and 10 million in cars at any given time.”
Renting is more affordable, of course. For many, Imagine Lifestyles offers the chance to get behind the wheel of a car they could previously only fantasize about.
“I would say it’s my favorite part of the job. I’m working with somebody who is having one of their best days. Usually, it’s their birthday or they’re celebrating something. They’re going somewhere that’s going to be really fun and they’re driving something that’s going to be really cool,” Messenger says a lot of his clients are brought in as a surprise. “They have a family member, maybe their wife or their kids who bring them here without them knowing so you get to see them realize what’s going on and light up. It’s one of my favorite things about the job.”
They also love to give back.
“We had a local kid who had brain cancer and we invited him to the warehouse and then took him out for a ride. We’re big on that.,” Safady and his father are both cancer survivors. His mother passed away from cancer 14 years ago. “For me, it’s really simple to just always say yes to stuff like that. We’re fortunate to have these vehicles. It’s so hard not to say yes to as many things as we can possibly do if it’s for a good cause.
They recently worked with For Pete’s Sake Cancer Respite Foundation.
“If there’s a family member who had cancer they send the family on a vacation,” Messenger explains. “We did some chauffeur work for them getting people to and from the airports. They just knew that they had a ride coming for them. They probably thought that it was going to be a van or something like that. It’s a good kick-off to that trip.”
DRIVING THE DREAM
When Safady called the cars celebrities he meant it.
“That’s another fun part of our business,” Messenger says. ”I thank Ryan for this because this is an example of him looking to diversify the business, we do a lot of video production. Our cars have been in a ton of television shows, movies, and music videos.”
Safady says that he realized that some clients were renting the cars just to feature them in their own music videos.
“We saw what people were using the cars for. So we opened up our warehouse so you could do the production right there,” Safady says. The two-hour package is more affordable than the car rental fee making it a great option for emerging artists.
The cars have also been included in big studio productions like Billions, Mare of Easttown, Scenes from a Marriage, Suits, and Madam Secretary.
We’re always excited to see what production company is working with us. It’s always fun to spot it,” Safady recently noticed an Imagine Lifestyle car on Shahs of Sunset. “I was watching it with my wife and I was like, oh my God that’s our BMW.” — 19006
If you want to drive your dream car to make a grand entrance at a special event, impress a client, or treat yourself to a little luxury check out imaginelifestyles.com and follow @imagine.lifestyles on Instagram and @imaginelifestyles on TikTok.
