first off,don't take your micra in for scrap.they will give you next to nothing for it. try it for sale on here or on ebay,as a spares or repairs project,listing the faults etc..
even like this they will make roughly 200-350 on ebay.i went to look at a '96 1.0 car a couple of weeks ago locally on ebay,it needed a fair bit of welding underneath,new brakes,a service,body was scruffy,was no history with it or mot,yet it sold for almost 300 [ i didn't buy it] ,so is a lot better than the 50 or 60 a typical scrappy will give you.
otherwise,if you are not too fussed about driving a non-nissan, a Corsa B 1.0 or 1.2 ['93-00 models] is very cheap to insure,cheaper than a micra,was for me anyway,i don't know how you found it when you had one? -i had a '95 1.2 in as a daily driver a couple of months back before i got the micra,and it was £198 fully comp. for me.but i am old,so would be more for younger drivers of course!! but worth checking out. and the older ones are cheap to buy and plentiful still.
yep,as been said,avoid metros like the plague,thats if you can find one these days!! they were bad back in the 80's when new,a mate had an '85 C plate one when it was only 3 or 4 years old and the front wings were rotten even then,horrible cars IMO...another mate had the MG version,it went well but bits were always falling off it!! and in '89 i remember skidding on black ice and nudging into a parked metro in my mk4 Cortina,i came off with a scratch and small dink in my bumper,the metro was quite crumpled!!
mk4 fiestas are reliable and cheap,and handle nice,but as has been mentioned they do suffer more from rust than the nissans i would say.the earlier,pre '95 fiestas are much worse for rust.
best of luck with your search,hope you get something sorted.