In the present paper, a numerical algorithm for the kinematic analysis of a MacPherson strut motor-vehicle suspension system is developed. The kinematic analysis is carried out in terms of the rectangular Cartesian coordinates of some defined points in the links and at the joints. The presented formulation in terms of this system of coordinates is simple and involves only elementary mathematics. The resulting constraint equations are mostly either linear or quadratic in the rectangular Cartesian coordinates. The proposed formulation eliminates the need to write redundant constraints and allows to solve a reduced system of equations which leads to better accuracy and a reduction in computing time. The algorithm is applied to solve the initial positions as well as the finite displacement, velocity and acceleration problems for the MacPherson strut motor-vehicle suspension system.