Yup, a LOT of car buying choices are about appearances, color, subjectives. It's rather amazing really that folks choose a $40 K item based on appearance as much as anything (or Consumer Reports, which I personally view as misleading and irrelevant).
Most cars in Europe are either black, or white, mostly black, it's fairly rare one is a color. My wife dislikes red cars unless they are Ferraris, which is fair enough I suppose. Our Caddy had a really nice paint job, tricoat offwhite something. I liked that color a lot. It also had a rather harsh ride, which you wouldn't think for a 4 cylinder Caddy. Some of that was due to the 35 profile run flats.
The GTI for me has about the best overall balance of any car I can imagine. It also has alloy wheels of course that look spiffy.