You sir are wrong... The 18's on the front do not clear the rotors by much, and I think the smallest that will fit are 17's.

The ride is awesome on the base and limited models with the current set up.

The stock rims and tires are going for $1,000 - $1,500 on Ebay daily.

There are several vendors on ebay that sell 17-19" staggered setups for under $700 plus tires. some are even under 800 with tires.

Happy hunting.

~ Jess

PS: your only statement that SEEMS correct is that there is nothing else at the dealership that you can swap out with...not to mention that dealerships won't do it anyway because of legal issues (that whole ford explorer flipping thing put a damper on everything).