better wheels, lowered, with good DD capabilties?
 

Please correct me if I am wrong. If I get 18" wheels with a coil-over set up that lowers the car 1" the wheel wells would lose a lot of gap but the car would only be lower 0.5" (to maintain clearance). Right? I essentially want the car with no change in clearance but with a better wheel well look because the car is my DD.

If you go 1" larger in overall dia, ie diameter of the tire, you're speedo will be off quite a bit. Generally you try to maintain the overall dia, if you go larger with the wheel dia, you go with a lower profile tire, to maintain the overall dia.

^ Basically what he said.

It depends on how big the tires are that you put on 18" wheels. So basically, the height of the sidewall will be a big factor.
Keep the overall tire diameter the same as stock, otherwise your speedometer is going to be off. You could be going like 5 mph slower/faster than what the speedometer is actually telling you.
And if you do keep the overall diameter the same, then a 1" drop on the coilovers will also mean 1" less clearance.