On the 3rd April the bonnet of our 05 reg clio flew up while my husband was driving with me and our 2 children in it, we were going on holiday at the time and had already travelled 183 miles into the journey. As the car is less than 3 yrs old and still under warranty I contacted Renault uk, they sent an engineer out to check the catch and found it to be of good working order, Renault uk then told us that we had failed to close the bonnet securely before leaving.(cheek ) I asked them why the second catch didn't work? and told them if the bonnet wasn't closed properly we would have seen the it moving up and down as we were driving.
I know VOSA have also checked these catches and they state they are safe, and I'm no engineer this is only my opinion, but if there is to much flexabilty in the front of these clio's and the bonnet was allowed to move just a fraction then the catch would fail, as there isn't much holding the catch, it would also explain why the second catch doesn't work either.
The most annoying thing about this is how Renault can imply that you could be so incapabile of doing something you do on a ragular basis. Even after they have put you through such a frightening experience. I do hope that some-one is able to prove there is a major problem with these cars some-where, before some-body has a fatal accident. You can mend a car, earn more money and build up your no claims discount, but you can't bring some-one back to life.