Renault will have to provide evidence to the court,that the letter was delivered..all recorded deliveries are recorded..that is were you may have them.... also states on the letter,the catch has to be checked in the mot.(also states, the responsibly to make sure the catch is ok is the owners job)so if it passed an mot..means the catch was fine,so its a design fail isnt it?.. the case lies on the letter.... if he didn't receive one.. if the owner doesn't no about the fault. how can he check it.. the car had mots since 2008, has not mentioned there is a fault. did the mot center didn't do their job and checked it, as Renault states they should do?.. you have a claim against the mot station,they passed a car that wasn't safe.didnt they? ... you have proof from the mots from 2008 that the catch was ok(look at past mots on line) we all know mots dont check bonnet catches..do they? so you use what Renault have stated in the letter against them..i would settle out of court for a new clio sport ,after i checked the bonnet catch 1st.. ha
i will take on his case for a fee.. ha ha..
Renault could settle out of court, they wouldnt have to admit liability and get 1000s of claims against them.. costing them millions..
The first port of call is to Phone Renault , they'll have it on their records if the bonnet catch was ever changed. I far as I'm aware , it was only replaced with the same bonnet catch , it wasn't an updated design. Also the OP can check if there is a blue sticker on the slam panel like in the picture below . After the catch was replaced Renault stuck this sticker on the slam panel to show it had been changed. Obviously that's not a foolproof method as it might have dropped off over time . I took mine off straight away and stuck it to the back of my recall letter and put it in my service history folder.
Maybe the previous owner received the letter , and as
@gally said , couldn't be arsed to get it fixed ? I ignored my first letter which was sent out circa 2008/09. I only got mine changed when i received a 2nd letter back in 2013. With the recall letter , there was also a tear off section for " change of details " to be sent directly to Renault. I'm guessing that was Renaults way of trying to track down cars that needed to have the catch replaced. I wonder how people who never had their bonnet catch replaced actually sent that back to Renault?
Hand on heart , I can honestly say I've never seen an MOT station check my bonnet catch and I've used about 4 different MOT places over the years and have always stayed and watched. I've only ever seen them lift the bonnet and check the engine bay , washer fluid bottle etc.......
Alot of these Clios have had multiple owners over the years , and I'll bet the majority of them never even think of maintaining the bonnet catch.
It'll be interesting to hear back from the OP if he does phone Renault .