Strut Tower problems of the 2006 Mini Cooper S

Back in late September 2006 I purchased a 06 Mini Cooper S (dealers demo with 380 miles). The week after I got it, I noticed that it pulled hard to the right when braking. I took the car to the dealer and the first time they told me that it was normal because of the road's pitch. After that I noticed that the wheel alignment started to get bad. I took the car to the dealer to check a couple of things including this one and they ignored it a couple of times saying it was ok. My big surprise was yesterday when after having to leave the car the whole day, they told me that the car has another issue named "mushrooming". This is when the car got a hard hit and the strut tower pushes up the metal where is attached to creating a bubble and damaging the alignment. How can the strut tower makes this damage without damaging the rim first?. . . All my rims are ok, no bends. Initially they wanted to charge me almost $1700 to fix the whole issue. I spoke directly with the service manager and he told me that as a goodwill gesture they would replace the strut tower, fix the problem and give me two new tires, but in exchange I'd have to buy them the two rear tires for my car for a price of $223. 00 plus extras. . . This sounds to me like bribe. . . I've done some research about this "mushrooming" issue and I've found that is a factory defect that has to be fixed with aftermarket pieces as a "reinforcement plate" and/or "strut tower brace". The problem is that the metal piece that holds the strut tower to the car is too weak, so the metal would bend so easy. . Read more...