I just did the struts on my car. It would have been a pain in the ass to get the front struts off, but my buddy came up with a trick. We used a floor jack and a hammer (2x4 would work). We propped the hammer on the jack and put it under the spring mounting plate on the strut, then just raised the jack until the strut popped out of the bracket. OK, so maybe not the smartest idea, but it worked.
