It's very odd. There needs to be a few degrees of rotation, which can only be accommodated as designed by flexing the neck joining the c-clip to the main trim.
That's what broke on mine earlier today - but it will be fixed back with superglue (already done) and araldite (extra reinforcement to come). The duct tape presumably gives just enough "wiggle room" even though it's a pretty tight fit in the slot.
The thin neck can only really be there to flex, otherwise there would be a sturdier connection. But the material is really too brittle.
And the c-clip is way bigger than the bolt it goes over (but a lot smaller than the slot) so there's a lot of slack in there - no wonder it doesn't work well.
Another way of doing it would be to have some washers on the bolt, but that would need a wider slot which it clearly isn't designed for.
Alternatively some sort of rubber block that the clip connects to and goes over the bolt. But the clip has no edges to hold this and the bolt is too high up to allow one anyway.
When I've finished aralditing mine together I'm going to reinstate the layer of duct tape, but also add additional material (rubber pads or extra duct tape) on both inner faces of the c-clip so that it's only just big enough to fit over the bolt. Currently it's over 10mm wide and the bolt is only about 3mm dia. The bolt I'll leave fairly slack.
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2003 D2 FL S8. Irish Green Pearl/Beige. Solar sunroof, auto-dim mirrors, electric rear seat functions and extended leather. Ski hatch retrofit. Aftermarket reversing camera. DVB-T and XCarlink now removed as redundant.
2016 Volvo V40 T5 Cross Country (4WD) with ALL the toys including adaptive cruise etc. etc. Osmium Grey with Blonde/Charcoal leather interior. Polestar performance "optimisation".  (Even rarer than a D2 S8!) Oh, and a brand new engine at just under 30,000 miles on the factory one! 
Finally: gone, but not forgotten.....
1998 D2 PF S8. Agate Grey/Platinum. Every option (I think) except electric rear seats, Tiptronic steering wheel, ski hatch, towbar & dimming door mirrors.
e.g. Cruise control, NavPlus/TV, Bose, GSM, Xenons, Solar roof, Parking sensors, Alcantara/leather everywhere of course.  (internal dimming mirror added later)
1998 (very early) Ford Focus 1.8 Zetec; ABS/TCS, Heated screen/mirrors, Aircon. Added Auto-dim mirror, Leather seats, Trip computer, Cruise control, OEM Ford SatNav with CD changer.
And before that a lot of Rover 800s, a few oddities, a lovely Triumph Dolomite 1850HL with Overdrive and way back in my schooldays an Austin Seven aka Mini 850!
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