'Ride Safe Tour' Virtual Reality Driving Experience Coming to Los Angeles Area

Free Consumer Driving Safety Experience to Make 4 Area Visits Through May 1

LOS ANGELES, April 28 -- The Monroe Ride Safe Tour, a multi-million-dollar interactive driving safety experience that will visit more than 150 U.S. markets this year, will make four high-profile stops in the Los Angeles area beginning today.

The free Ride Safe Tour experience, which enables consumers to enhance their understanding of key vehicle maintenance and safety issues, will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. today at USA Express Tires & Services, 26492 Town Center Drive in Foothill Ranch, and from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Pomona Fairplex in Pomona. On Wednesday, the interactive driving safety experience will visit Mountain View Tire, 18837 E. Colima Road in Rowland Heights from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The final local stop will take place from 8 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. Thursday, May 1, at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa.

Featuring highly sophisticated electronic driving simulators, one of the world's only full-size vehicle rollover simulators, interactive "Vehicle Knowledge Center" kiosks and a broad range of hands-on educational experiences, the Ride Safe Tour is designed to encourage consumers to protect their driving safety through periodic inspections and maintenance of the components that determine vehicle steering, stopping and stability characteristics.

"The Ride Safe Tour is a fascinating and fun opportunity for consumers to learn about the automotive systems that help protect their safety and the safety of their passengers," said Richard Alameddine, vice president of marketing for Tenneco Automotive, manufacturer and marketer of Monroe products. "Community members will be able to experience both the precision and excitement of modern, well-maintained ride control technologies and the challenges and dangers of relying on worn or damaged chassis components -- all while safety buckled into one of our vehicle simulators."

The Ride Safe Tour is the first comprehensive mobile consumer education experience focusing on vehicle ride control technologies. These technologies, known collectively as the "Safety Triangle," include the interdependent components -- such as tires, brakes, shocks and struts -- that help determine a vehicle's steering, stopping and stability characteristics.

"Any one of these components, if worn or damaged, could undermine the performance of the vehicle's entire Safety Triangle system," Alameddine said. "The Ride Safe Tour experience enables consumers to see and feel the significant degradation of steering, stopping and stability as a vehicle's ride control components begin to wear."

The presence of just one 50-percent degraded shock absorber on a vehicle can increase required 60-to-0 mph stopping distance by an average of 10 feet when compared to the same vehicle equipped with four fully functional shocks, according to research certified by the United States Auto Club.(1) Handling tests show that vehicles with four properly operating shock absorbers provide better steering and stability performance than those equipped with at least one worn shock.(2) In spite of these facts, half of today's passenger vehicles are equipped with worn chassis parts, according to automotive industry estimates.

For more information on the Monroe Ride Safe Tour, visit www.ridesafetour.com.

   (1)  Tests performed on a dry, bumpy surface, comparing top selling
        vehicles equipped with Monroe Sensa-Trac shock absorbers and same
        vehicles equipped with three new and one 50% degraded OE shock.
        Results may vary by vehicle, driver ability and driving conditions.

   (2)  Tests performed over 236-foot-long dry surface with obstacle cone
        placed 88 feet down track. Course featured 28 test bumps. Vehicles
        tested included three popular passenger car models, two light trucks
        and two SUVs. Results may vary by vehicle, driver ability and
        driving conditions.