Got your PM but I'm going to address that to the general forum so others may learn, as well.
There are two schools of thought when wanting to fit wheels and tires. One, make the wheels and tires fit the car. Two, make the car fit the wheels and tires. One meaning buy your wheels and tires based on what will fit without having to do anything special to the car. And two, go after the car with gizmos and hacksaw to fit wheels and tires that otherwise shouldn't be there.
Basically, of you want the flush look, your gonna have to roll the fenders. BY the definition of "flush" your wheel is going to be even with the outside body line or in some cases further out. The fender lip in the back is going to prohibit that even if you were to stretch the tire. The compression of the suspension will make that fender lip hit the tire or wheels. On a stock suspension, you may be able to get away with that with minimal rubbing, but aesthetically, the look just isn't really pulled off without the car sitting on top of the tire or wheel.
If you want to run a big wheel like an 18x10 with an aggressive offset, you'll need to roll and maybe pull the rear fenders, add negative camber and work on a tire that's in the bottom range or even less than the manufacturers recommended size for that wheel.
Since your wanting to lower the car, all of the above becomes more necessary. Keep the lowering at an inch or less, and you shouldn't need to do much with regards to getting the suspension and steering back to normal. At around an inch or more, you should start thinking about things to correct suspension geometry so you don't have a funky handling POS that looks cool but ceases to handle better than pappy's old farm truck. This step is often overlooked by too many.
Stretching the tires is never really a good thing. Stretching is when your tire size is too small for the manufacturers recommended wheel. This can present handling and wear issues on the tire and expose the wheel to damage from the road. This also goes against the design of how the tire should be safely mounted to the rim. Stretching can increase the chance of loosing the tire or unseating it from the rim bead. Take a corner with too much aggression and the tire unseats itself and your car winds up in the ditch.
My recommendation is this:
If you want to do minimal work then stay away from aggressive fitments.
If you have to have the aggressive flushed look, then be prepared for all sorts of things but try and keep things safe.
As for the ringland issue? There is no real true way to avoid it all together other than forged pistons and quality tuning. Don't beat on the car constantly, keep up with the maintenance and use quality products and fuels. This car may be a budget performance car but being cheap with it only makes you spend more in the longterm.