Quick Stats: Trey Wingo, co-host, ESPN Radio’s Golic and Wingo
Daily Driver: 2017 BMW X5 (Trey’s rating: 8.5 on a scale of 1 to 10)
Other cars: see below
Favorite road trip: Connecticut to Texas
Car he learned to drive in: late 1970s Toyota Supra
First car bought: 1986 Jeep Wrangler
When Trey Wingo was a kid, having a BMW was like being in the cool club. Fast-forward decades, and Wingo now lives that reality every day driving one to his show at ESPN headquarters.
“When I was growing up, my dad got a BMW 320 when I was in high school, and I thought that was the coolest thing in the world,” Wingo tells MotorTrend. “I was driving it one time, and this other BMW passed by and flashed its lights at me, and I was like, ‘Oh, yeah! So we’re in the club now!’ and I flashed him back. I guess it goes back to a little bit of that.”
Wingo says he hasn’t driven a perfect car, but there’s nothing he dislikes about his BMW, which he rates an 8.5 out of 10. “It’s one of many BMWs I’ve had, so obviously I must like the brand because I keep going back to it,” he says. “I like the look of it, I like how it drove, I like the room it gives you, and I’m good friends with the guys at the dealership, so all those things factored into it.”
Living in New England, Wingo especially likes how the BMW handles in the snow. “Because it’s an SUV, I can throw a lot of crap in the back and get where I need to go,” he adds. He also likes its safety features, including the lane departure warning, blind-spot monitor, and head-up display.
2012 Jeep Wrangler
Rating: 9
Although Wingo’s daily commuter car is a BMW, he will always have a soft spot for the Jeep Wrangler. He has had one ever since the first year they were made.
“I’ve always had one. Right out of college, I got the first model of the Jeep Wrangler. It was cherry red with a tan leather interior, and I thought it was the coolest thing ever,” he says. “I remember tooling down the highway with the doors off and the top down. I will always have a Jeep Wrangler. I will never not have one.”
There isn’t anything Wingo dislikes about the Wrangler. “I love the four-wheel drive, I love the feeling of sitting up high. I love the doors coming off, I love the top being down,” he says. “To me, it’s a vehicle that is very free-wheeling, and I just feel great when I drive it. It’s a lot of fun.”
Wingo’s current Wrangler, which he rates a 9 out of 10, makes him think back to his first. “I got it for myself for a birthday present to pretend I’m not as old as I think I was,” he says. “Like I’m still youthful and energetic. It was my son’s car for a while when he was here, and he loves it. Now he has one of his own, so that’s kind of fun. It reminds me of when I was a kid and I had that car and I’d crank up the music and I’d take the top doors off and I’d take the top down.”
Car he learned to drive in
Wingo learned to drive in his parents’ old Toyota Supra, which he thinks was a late 1970s model. “It was a green, stick shift. I’m a big believer that everyone should learn how to drive a stick shift. That’s a big deal with me,” he says.
Wingo says it’s a handy skill. “To me there should be two kinds of driver’s licenses: people that can drive stick and standard and people that can only drive automatic. There should be a disclaimer there, because not everybody learns how to drive stick anymore, and I think they’re missing out on something there,” Wingo says.
Wingo’s dad taught him to drive. “It’s a funny story. My dad was a real big car enthusiast, and he lived in Hong Kong for three years when he was bureau chief for Life magazine for the Vietnam War. And [when] we were really, really young, he took me and my sister out in his old Triumph Spitfire convertible and tried to teach us how to drive. We were way too young to do it, on a little safe street there, but he was such an enthusiast and especially a convertible guy, that it was really, really a lot of fun for him to try and teach us how to do it, and obviously that was the first of many lessons that eventually got a lot better as we got older,” he says.
When Wingo was in his teens, he drove in earnest around the “mean streets of Greenwich, Connecticut,” he says in jest. “It was somewhat suburban, but I-95 is right there, the Post Road, U.S. Route 1, is a pretty busy thoroughfare, so there are always issues, but there were quiet places and parking lots that made it easier to drive,” he recalls. “But once you get that license and hopping on and off I-95 in the corridor there, that’s never really a fun time, especially as a kid. So that was a little bit of a challenge.”
After driving the Supra, Wingo got a light yellow 1970 Volkswagen Beetle as a Christmas present from his parents. “That car was my high school vehicle, and I drove that sucker everywhere. I drove it up on ski trips, I drove it to sporting events, I drove it to a football game at Shea Stadium between the Jets and the Saints in a driving snowstorm. How we ever made it there and back in that car, I’ll never understand, but that car got me where I needed to be,” he says.
The Beetle was already pretty old, and Wingo put even more miles on it. “We called it the ‘Indestructomobile’ because, literally, you could go anywhere with it and it would get you where you needed to go,” he says.
His friend was a Saints fan and they wanted to go to the Jets game, which was usually about an hour’s drive, but it obviously took longer in a snowstorm. “I think that was the only game that year the Saints won. I think they were one and 15, and that was the only game they won, and we drove it back from Shea Stadium in a blinding snowstorm. That was a little hairy at the time, but again, the car got us where we needed to be,” he says.
First car bought
The first car Wingo bought was his first Jeep Wrangler. “It was a 1986, the year they first came out. I chose that car because it looked like it was a lot of fun. I’ve always liked the Jeeps,” he says. “I’ve always like the way they ride. I like riding up high. I had a job that I could afford it.”
Wingo was working in Washington, D.C. as an account executive for a public relations firm. “I lived in the Glover Park area of Georgetown. I just had so much fun bopping around D.C. and M Street and up Wisconsin Avenue in that car. It was just a blast. Driving it out to the Virginia countryside, it was just terrific,” he says. “For me it’ll always have a special place in my life because it was the first really fun car that I had and it was so much fun to drive. I always want to have that as an extra car to bop around town in.”
Wingo eventually sold the Wrangler and bought a more practical car, but when he could afford a second car, he bought a new one. Now, he’s on his fourth Wrangler. “I took that thing up to Vermont, a driving snowstorm, 8 inches of snow on the ground, and we’re plowing along in four-wheel drive. It’s kind of fun,” he says.
Although he’s not in his Wrangler daily, Wingo views it as a cool club car, much like BMWs were to him as a kid. “The one thing that is funny: When I drove that BMW and that car flashed its lights at me, every time I pass someone in the Jeep, I get a wave from somebody in that car. Literally, every time someone drives by,” he says. “They have a little bumper sticker, ‘It’s a Jeep thing—You Wouldn’t Understand.’ I think that’s part of it; you just need to like them or you don’t.”
Favorite road trip
Wingo’s favorite road trip is the one he took with his dad from Connecticut to Waco, Texas, where he was a student at Baylor University. “My dad, like I said, he was always a big car guy, and he always loved Mustang convertibles. Much in the same way I’ve always had a Jeep Wrangler, he always had a Mustang convertible as one of his cars. One year going back to college, he decided to drive back down with me. I got the Mustang convertible that year in college, which was awesome,” he says.
But it was the memory of that road trip that Wingo will always cherish. “It was just the two of us tooling down the highway and my dad, a very responsible guy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen him happier in his life than when he was on that trip with the top down and the wind in his hair, just tooling along, from Connecticut all the way down to Texas. Just having the time of his life, just cruising along on the highways,” he says. “That’s always a lot of fun. I’ll always have that memory.”
It took three days, he recalls, but seeing his dad having such a blast was worth all the miles. “It was just the two of us on the road for a few days, and it was great. Everything about it was great. The smile on his face was great, cranking the music was great. I’m a big convertible guy. Whenever the weather’s good, I make sure I take that Jeep Wrangler out because I could take the top off,” he says. “Much in the same way he’s always loved convertibles, that’s one of the reasons I’ve always loved having that Jeep Wrangler, and that trip was a big part of that for both of us.”
Golic and Wingo on ESPN Radio 6 to 10 a.m.
Wingo joins his co-host and Celebrity Drive alum Mike Golic on ESPN Radio each morning, with a simulcast on ESPN2 and ESPNews.
“I also do NFL PrimeTime during the season and am host of the NFL Draft and the Hall of Fame ceremony,” Wingo says. “It’s a blast. Mike and I have known each other for years. I used to host NFL Live before this, and Mike and I live about a mile apart from each other. Our kids grew up together, they went through the same junior football programs together,” he says. “The funny thing about it, this was supposedly a new show, yet it’s two old friends who’ve been doing this for a long, long time together. We’re just doing it in a different format.”
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