Hello...my wife and I just bought our first Mini (used 2012 - Clubman S).
We really love this lil car. Drives and rides great except for a nasty characteristic when driving at highway speeds. If you hit a rough patch or seam in the road, or rough joint at bridges or overpasses... This lil mini hops around to the point of it being really unnerving! The shocks appear to be new and everything is tight.
We don't know if the previous owner did anything to the suspension to lower it or make it extremely stiff (they did install a performance exhaust that gives it a little more buzz than she likes!).
Or are these Mini's really tight on rough roads? While the constant highway construction is going on around here...it gets a little Western driving this car.
We plan to go to a Mini Dealer and have them check it over, but the nearest one is around 4hrs away, so I'll have to plan that around work.
Any ideas would be welcome!
Thank you in advance! Mike

 

Check the lower control arm bushing and ball joints. Also, are you on run flats? If you switch out to normal tires, that'll help with the ride comfort/feel as well.