Did you even read the mostly incorrect wiki entry? The a couple of the factual points are "It consists of a
shock absorber with a
coil spring encircling it." and "Coilovers should not be confused with struts or independently mounted shock absorbers."
Have you even looked under your car? If you did you'll see that it looks nothing like the picture you included which is a strut type suspension but not a MacPherson strut suspension. Another factual point from wiki "
MacPherson strut suspension system, which is distinguished from other arrangements by employing a particular design of
anti-roll bar as a longitudinal constraint." See the patent
http://www.google.com/patents?id=Qup...949%2F&f=false and you'll see since it uses a lower radius rod to provide fore aft location of the lower control arm it is not a MacPherson strut suspension since in a MacPherson strut suspension it is the anti-roll bar that does that function.
Panther front suspension note the upper control arms that are the upper locating device.
But a strut suspension does not need the coil spring mounted to the dampener, see the Fox front suspension which is a strut type suspension since the dampener does locate the suspension but the coil spring is mounted on the lower control arm as pictured below.
There are even strut style suspensions that use torsion bars as the spring component such as the Porsche 911 pictured below.