Tenneco, which is the company behind Monroe shocks, has recently conducted its Tenneco Technology Tour. As part of the said tour, Patti Feck, the area sales manager of Tenneco stood at the parking lot of the Chautauqua Mall and looked out at Route 394. She said that their statistics indicate that seven out of 100 cars that drove by need their shocks replaced. Sadly, most of these people seem to be not aware of it. It is for this reason that Tenneco have thought of conducting the Tenneco Technology Tour. Many vehicle owners must know about these things. If I am to put it simply, I would say that the Tenneco Technology Tour is an awareness campaign—a how-is-your-shocks-awareness campaign.

The Tenneco Technology Tour served as an event where area mechanics and auto part suppliers did a lot of auto mechanical stuff like compare the steering, stability characteristics of vehicles with OEM shocks, stopping characteristics of vehicles as well as Monroe replacement products (that we know is produced by Tenneco). According to Ms. Feck, ‘‘[w]e bring in our technicians from independents and shops to learn about our (gear).’’ This is actually a good marketing strategy if you ask me. But aside from being a marketing strategy, this also gets to open the minds of auto experts like the mechanics and auto parts dealers to give due importance to the shocks of the vehicle for it seems like there is not much attention given to it.

Those who took part in the tour/event were given the chance to ride the vehicle as passengers around an obstacle course that were made up of sharp turns, pot holes, speed bumps, and even a fake deer that the driver must avoid. Having a ride on a vehicle with faulty shocks and one with good ones, Ms. Feck hopes that those who were able to have a ride on them would “feel the difference.” I hope they do as well and Bilstein shocks is always there to answer the needs of those who needs to have their shocks replaced.