Some of the roads over here are absolutely atrocious. Think of the worse cobble stone road you've ever driven on, and multiply that by 2. Some parts are just that bad.
In my E30, I've driven through a pothole so bad, it destroyed my rear shock mount. Once that was replaced, it destroyed it AGAIN. Even with a bad quality part (*cough*URO*cough*), it shouldn't be that easy to destroy a shock mount.
When I was in Florida, there wasn't a single pothole in sight - ANYWHERE! It was heaven... too bad I was in a rental car and not mine.