Is the Late 2008 MacBook Pro, and models beyond that, less faulty than the Early 2008 MacBook Pro?

My early 2008 MacBook Pro broke and there is nothing that Apple will do for me unless I drop some money on them. The easiest thing for me to do is to gut my computer, try to salvage the data on the hard drive, and buy a whole new Mac (with an extended warranty this time). I thought at first it was my graphics card that had died, but I now think the whole motherboard perished. Whatever the case, I would like a new MacBook Pro, but I don’t want to buy one if it’s just going to die on me like this first one.