Nissan Micras - are they gash, or have I been unlucky?

Right, so this is the saga of my car, a 2004 Nissan Micra 1.5 diesel.

Bought aforementioned car in 2004 - it was 6 months old, and had about 5000 miles on the clock. For a while it was great - it had a mirror in the driver's visor and a hook in the footwell for shopping bags and everything!

Dec 2006 - the central locking started playing up, with the boot very occasionally locking and unlocking seemingly at whim.

2007 - took the car into a Nissan dealership to be MOTd and to have the central locking to be looked at, as the boot lock was now starting to piss me off. They pointed out that there were three outstanding recalls to the car, including central locking and ignition issues.

2007 -literally two weeks after the MOT, and three weeks before the warranty ran out, the engine died at a junction. It spent five days at a Nissan dealership. After a couple of days, I rang to see if they'd found out what the issue was. Their response, "We've put it through the diagnostic computers, and they can't find anything wrong. But we know something's wrong, because the engine won't start".

Eventually, they replaced a big chunk of engine - the starter motor, and a lot of the surrounding componentry. They told me it wasn't covered by the warranty, and would cost £680 for non-Nissan parts, or £740 for Nissan parts. They then phoned up and apologised, as it was covered by the warranty - the guy had misread the mechanic's 'D' (for diesel) as 'P' (for petrol). Big sigh of relief, and a decision not to bother with the Nissan dealership again.

2008 - the connector from the wipers to the wiper motor died. Three different garages said it'd cost a bit, as the entire wiper rack would have to be replaced (I checked with multiple garages, as I found it hard to believe they couldn't get the connecting component separately). This cost £180. Cue weeping.

End of 2008 - fuel economy started going down the pan, and there was an oil leak. More weeping.

Feb 2009 - More happy fun times, this time in the shape of the EGR valve. This is where I made the startling discovery that 2003/2004 Nissan Micras actually have Renault engines and electrics. The knowledge that my car was secretly French didn't do much to ease the £800 pain of tracking down the fault and replacing the valve, along with the rear wheels needing new bearing kits. And another oil leak needed fixing.

May 2009 - Passed MOT. Yay!

June 2009 - Got in the car one morning and the engine was dead. Needed new starter motor, would have cost £250 odd, but I've got AA cover so they pay up to £500 for repairs, with only a £25 excess.

June 2009 - Engine died. Again. This time was more exciting - we were driving oop North when the red battery light started flickering on and off. Then the ABS and power steering warning lights came on, and off went most of the electrics - power steering gone, no radio or heater/cooler, etc, accompanied by a most delightful burning smell and whirring noise. As we were driving up to the Peak District, we pulled over to call the AA. Good job, as the car wouldn't start again.

Yes, two weeks after having my new starter motor fitted, it got fried. The AA man said that he'd dealt with a similar case on a Micra a few weeks earlier, and it turned out it was a problem with the ignition - sometimes it gets stuck internally in the ignition position, forcing the starter motor to constantly trigger.

We don't know yet if the starter motor will be covered under warranty by the garage (if it was burnt out by the same fault as the previous one, isn't it their fault they didn't find that last time?), or whether the AA will stump up the cost again - we can have five claims a year, but the fact it's the same sort of issue in two weeks might cause problems.

So, has anyone experienced similar with a Micra, or am I just incredibly unlucky? I keep getting people saying, "Oooh, but they're usually so reliable!", but I'm also hearing from various garages and AA men about how they've dealt with similar issues.