Hello, seeking help, any advice gratefully appreciated...

The car is a 1995 UK Nissan Primera, going great.  Don't think it was
ever crashed - no sign of damage - but it pulls fairly strongly to the
left all the time (in gear and in neutral).  The tyre wear you'd expect
also occurs.

Nothing is evidently wrong with the suspension (according to a visual
inspection) and a number of "regular" four-wheel alignments haven't
made a difference.  When I say regular, I mean the guy took the car,
put it on his rig, and gave it back to me.  I'm afraid I don't know how
this is supposed to work.  I didn't get a computerised printout from
the last one; about a year ago, I did, and I noticed that one of the
toe measurements hadn't changed at something quite high (2.6, maybe)

To the naked eye, the front offside wheel seems a little further back
than the driver side (which is the RHS).  I believe this is called
setback?  Or is it a sign that something in there is bent?

My questions are:
* Setback - any way to tell if this how the car was built or if it
results from damage?  If the former, should an alignment be able to
account for it (something to do with the (rear) toe measurement?)  Is
it possible that I'm bringing the car to alignment guys who simply just
don't know about setbacks?
* A separate recent service revealed that the shocks are stiff and that
at least one of the strut bushes is on the way out... any chance either
of these could be the cause of my problem?
* Maybe it's not the setback - any other theories, possibilities,
shared experiences of this steering drift? (I've seen hints on usenet
that others have hit this snag but no-one's said exactly how they
solved it).

It's a marvellous drive and I'd hate to have to give it up, but I will
have to if I can't fix this.  Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

HT