Spacers work well, my brother has used them on various cars to make up for a lack of backspacing on his rims. If you do use spacers, make sure you get good ones, preferably hub-centric if you can find them so all the weight isn't resting on your lug studs. 16's, 15's, and maybe even some 14's should fit, again the brakes hitting is a backspacing issue. Before you buy different rims, take a few measurements and find out what the backspacing is on the rims you are looking at so you don't run into the same problem.
