As a former owner of a K11 micra (96N 1ltr S 3dr), mine was generally fine, except for not liking short start-stop journeys (backing out of the drive to let my parents' car in at the front, etc), especially in cold/damp conditions and from a cold start. It had a tendancy to flood the engine by over-fueling. Most modern cars don't like such treatment - it was just that the K11 Micra suffered worse.

My parents' 96P Ford Fiesta 1.25 never had a problem in that department - it did get through £000s of suspension repairs and (as a result of these problems) lots of tyres, even though it had done 30k miles in 10 years (mine had done 55k miles with only one set of tyres changed).

I think they actually got worse as a car after the supposedly cosmetic change in 1998, but especially near the end of the K11 model's life around 2002, when the build quality apparently suffered.

Mine started to rust at 10 years old, needing a new body section welded by the lower front seat belt mounting point (to pass its MOT). The engine generally (other than the short start-stop problems) was actually very nice, if a little underpowered.

daiking - does your budget stretch to a first-generation (non-French built) Toyota Yaris Auto? If not, you might want to look at its predecessor, the Starlet 1.3 Auto - boring, but they were reliable at the time (a bit more expensive than the equivalent Micra at the time). Whether they'll be in good enough condition now (e.g. rust problems), if you can find one, is another matter - my experience seeing them on the road is that they're likely to have been owned by either careful young women drivers or the elderly (low mileage).

To be honest, very few cars between 10-15 years old are going to be that reliable and cheap to run (if you want to keep it), as most modern small cars are only designed to last 7-10 years - anything over that is a bonus. I would get something that is cheap, meets your needs (space, driving experience, etc) and in as good mechanical condition as possible with a recent MOT - forget about the make - any major repair is likely to cost at least as much as the car's worth, so just run it until it breaks.