I really like and trust my indi mechanic. Of course, there's no way to tell for sure if he's just shining me on, but he assured me that he inspected and then torque tested all the suspension components and couldn't find any significant wear... except in those front struts. I guess I could take it back.

Since they were just replaced, its too late to go with the heavy duty rubber bushings. Although that's a great find. I'll keep that in mind... as I had hoped to keep this car for another 8-10 years.

I just seems to me that slotted and cross drilled rotors would introduce enough surface differentiation in the rotor that the pads would be less likely to 'dominate' with uneven deposits. I realize it wouldn't 'clean them', but still, there'd be less surface area to develop deposits on, right??