To be honest, IMHO, the weight really didn't have anything to do with it. The entire strut tower is aluminum alloy, the frame rail, is all steel. Increasing the tower from 7 to 12mm would be a menial weight at best. I could weigh the Strut tower, but a guess of weight when I took it off would be less than 10 pounds for the tower itself the thing needing replacement. On a Turbo charged car going from 10 to 11 lbs hypothetically would be nothing worth noting.
I did purchase the tower and entire frame rail from Eurospares as that's the only way they sold it. I think it was 1400 opposed to if Maserati in the U.S. sold it to me it was only $500 for the tower itself that came together in a recall kit.
Also the spring recall probably was addressed realizing the last thing they wanted to do is have those strut towers pounded by more road force. When I spoke in length, in person, to the Service Manager at the Peabody, MA Maserati dealership (also known as Kelly Maserati) he was trying to convince me it happened because someone drove the sh%&, out of the car. The only problem with that theory was I've seen quite a few front end accidents that haven't broken strut towers like that. Additionally, they don't market the Ghibli in a keep it under 70 mph way. Surely you don't expect to purchase that vehicle and not drive it spiritedly. I'm pretty sure he knew as he told me this I wasn't buying it because I told him the exact same thing.
In any event, the Driver's side (U.S. ) was ripped, but the passenger side also was cracking around the bolt holes in the tower. You could also feel the passenger side pushing up and making the tower concave. Respectfully, the only "fix" I personally would accept is for them to change them. As for going through the insurance, they've tried that here with another person. Not that I particularly care for insurance companies, but they shouldn't have to pay 20-30k on a repair that the Man. knew was defective. The answer is yes, they would total the car out if they had to pay out a claim on it. There is no question in my mind they would as we also do collision work from time to time.
Lastly, I totally agree this is the way to handle it in a Corporate way. Save as much money as possible, hide the issue as long as possible, deny the issue exists (which what they did when it started happening), and when you have to address it, address at the least cost analysis approach. But is that fair for the Consumer who has to deal with the issue, absolutely not, which is why I started the thread in the first place. It's not for people who don't have the car. It's for the savvy Consumer that it's pushed off on that will come here and read up on what is going on with their car and force they're hand. The long and short of it is, this takes time to post all of this. I'm not paid for it, and it definitely doesn't directly profit me. But if I owned one of the these cars I would appreciate someone informing me if I wasn't in that field of expertise.