ABSTRACT: The main objective of the present work is to study theoretically and experimentally how the ride performance is affected by shock absorber representation. To achieve this goal, mathematical modeling of vehicle suspension system is introduced, and the MATLAB/SIMULINK and ADAMS software are used for numerical simulation. The shock absorber characteristics are measured experimentally. An advanced test rig for measurement, recording, and computer analyzing the readings is used. The time history of force applied, the force versus displacement and force versus velocity are given in sheet and also in graphs. An analysis of the obtained results considering the actual measured characteristics has been carried out. For the considered vehicle, it is concluded that, the actual shock absorber representation improve the response of sprung mass acceleration up to (37%), pitch acceleration up to (74.3%), vehicle ride index up to (58.4%), and vehicle road holding up to (-4.25%)compared to the results obtained using linear shock absorber approximation.