Honestly i don't really care about aesthetics of a car, the things that mattered(and still matter to me) when i bought the car were: price (of course), consumption, and safety(crash test results and stuff like that), as much as you may be cautious when you drive, there's not much you can do if someone crashes into your car.
When I bought the Meriva (me and my brother), there was an offer on some Opel cars, discounted prices(plus an extra discount cuz we gave in our old Renault Clio to scrap) and they had all (i think) a normal fuel engine but with GPL/LPG implants installed. Meriva and Corsa were sold at the same price(not the latest model, i think it was the Meriva model that was produced till the end of 2010, Meriva A or something like that), i wanted the Corsa, because had better score on crash tests(and it also looks better imo), but my brother wanted to buy the meriva cuz in his opinion was more useful: bigger insides, you could put in more stuff etc...
At the end my brother won the argue and we bought the Meriva, (i only chose the color:white, but if i could go back i'd chose black, if the car is dirty you don't notice much like on white) cuz afterall he was the one who had most money
Meriva is not bad but i still prefer Opel Corsa.
We also have another car, a crappy '97 fiat Punto, i generally use it only when i have to go not far from the city, i call it " coffin with wheels - walking coffin", nowdays Punto models are much better and safer, but the one we have it's really crappy, plus it's a car for midgets, i can't sit properly, my head touches the top . My brother once went to Norway with that crap
Ah i "confirm" the Bmw stereotype, old Bmw models here are often called as "gipsy's car" Yob car and stuff like that