I noticed on the front of a set of a brand new tires the tread on left tire was worn to the core and the was separating from the tire on the inside, the right tire had every little tread left. The cause of this was the struts had damaged the upper strut plates on both sides, causing it to be out of alignment.there has been 216 complaints and nothing has been done to correct the failure; I.e, parts repaired or replaced.

- Golden , CO, USA

Noticed on brand new tires the tread on left tire was worn to the core and the was separating from the tire on inside, the right tire had every little tread left. There has been 216 complaints. Nothing has been done to correct the failure or repair or replace the parts. The tires had only 4000 miles on them when it was noticed.

- Golden , CO, USA

Strut towers deformed. This is a result of standard equipment run flat tires hitting pot holes. The fix is a reinforcing plate attached to the top of the strut tower. Either the run flats should not have been available or the strut towers should have been of sufficient strength.

- River Vale, NJ, USA

(1) I recently traded my 2003 MINIcooper in for a 2005 MINICooper S at a private dealership. (2) upon inspecting the 2005 Cooper S, I noticed that the strut towers were deformed, but since this was not a MINIdealership, nothing could be done by them. I bought the car thinking this could be fixed under warranty. After calling the closest MINIdealership which is 200+ miles away, I was informed that this was considered abuse to the car and it would not be covered under warranty. The previous owner must have hit a pothole. The problem I have with this situation is there is a serious design flaw in the MINIcooper's shock towers. This is the first time I have seen this happen to a car. I have owned many cars in my lifetime, and never have seen this happen. I am not the only owner to experience this and it is a pretty common occurrence in MINIcoopers. I'm concerned because this situation causes the car to wander on the road. After doing research, I'm getting feedback from other owners. Some say their dealership is fixing the deformation, others, like myself are denied. I'm a little frightened at what could happen to the car over time from this. Will the sheet metal get even weaker as time goes on? I believe BMW should address this issue. (3) I have not fixed this problem on my car yet, but the fix is to either pay money to have the shock towers cut out and have new ones welded in, or pound down the old ones until they are flat, then buy reinforcement plates from a vendor to keep the already stressed metal from bending again.

- Navarre, FL, USA