nope that is compleatly wrong. I agree with the jap reliability thing but only to a point. on a 12 year old car, all are equal, becuase many expensive things will be partly worn and it is luck whether something big fails on you in 1 year or 3. £300 of car is priced that way becuase its not going to pass its next mot or there is something wrong with it. If not it would be £800.
Fiestas are not acctually that common in the scrapyard. Ive had a good look myself and most of them, 99% are the older 8v cvh engines. People dont scrap them, becuase they are cheap to fix and keep going