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September 20, 2006

Tenneco's Global OE Exhaust Portfolio Means Business Advantage In The Repair Bay

Company Leverages Domestic OE Business, Global Gillet® and Starla® Brands to Deliver Exact-Fit Products for North American Car Parc

Harrisonburg, VA -For many aftermarket suppliers, the first steps in developing a replacement exhaust component for a late-model application are securing the appropriate vehicle and "reverse-engineering" the original equipment system.

Engineers for the Walker exhaust brand, by contrast, might only need to contact their OE counterparts - either domestic or overseas - within Tenneco Inc., which designs and manufactures complete emission systems and components for most of the world's leading vehicle manufacturers. In fact, the company's global Gillet and Starla brands have helped bring dozens of new direct-fit, OE-style exhaust assemblies, mufflers and other products to the Walker line in North America.

"We made the commitment several years ago to be the single source of a complete range of exact-fit, OE-quality exhaust systems for virtually the entire North American car parc," said Frank Murkowski, marketing manager, North American emission control, Tenneco. "Our ability to pick up the phone and have immediate access to the prints for dozens of European and Asian OE applications is a huge competitive advantage not only for Walker but for the shops relying on our products to grow their share of the foreign-nameplate category."

Tenneco's North American OE portfolio often enables Walker aftermarket engineers to shorten the release time of new products, providing customers more rapid access to premium, direct-fit replacement exhaust products. The company currently manufactures OE exhaust products for vehicles sold in North America by DaimlerChrysler, Ford, General Motors, Honda, Jaguar, Nissan, Toyota, and Volkswagen. Tenneco also is a leading OE exhaust supplier in Europe, marketing under the well-known Gillet brand and supplying customers from 20 production facilities in 10 countries. The company also operates state-of-the-art engineering centers in the U.S., Brazil, Argentina, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Australia, and Japan.

The Walker brand has dramatically increased its coverage of foreign-nameplate applications in each of the past four years, with more than 40 percent of new premium Walker Quiet-Flow®3 and 39 percent of new SoundFX® mufflers addressing non-North American applications.

"In the past, shops often had to rely on OE dealerships or more expensive import specialist brands to capture these repair opportunities. Now they simply need to open up their Walker catalog to access products that provide OE-style quality and performance," Murkowski said.

For additional information regarding Walker exhaust and emission control products, contact your Walker supplier, visit www.walkerexhaust.com, or call (734) 243-8000.

Tenneco Inc. is a $4.4 billion manufacturing company with headquarters in Lake Forest, Illinois, and approximately 19,000 employees worldwide. Tenneco is one of the world's largest producers and marketers of ride control and exhaust systems and products, which are sold under the Monroe® and Walker® global brand names. Among its products are Sensa-Trac® and Monroe Reflex® shocks and struts, Rancho® shock absorbers, Walker® Quiet-Flow® mufflers and DynoMax® performance exhaust products, and Monroe® Clevite® vibration control components.

Contact
Pinnacle Communications Group Inc.
Drew Shippy
(1) 330 688 3500
drew@pinmedia.com