well, when i put the 17s on i thought too "hmm thats odd" seeing as it had a massive gap in the wheel arches there.
but im not sure how much lowering it would cost. keep in mind i only paid $2000 for this (woman seller was going overseas in a week, i used both of these factors - gender and travelling constraints - to screw her on price).
this is what my old magna looked like:
looks quite nice you say, whats the problem?
3 engine leaks
clutch was rooted (and quoted at about $1000 to replace with a heavy duty one + labour)
handbrake totally useless as rear brake shoes were worn to the metal and the cable was stretched to the last fibre (quoted at $500 to get new shoes + cable)
stereo didnt work properly (not a big deal :p)
one of the brake lights didnt work
when i bought it it had these problems that i forked out over $1000 in total to fix:
tyres down to the metal bands (turned out it was running really bad camber and although the wheels looked fine from the outside they were fucked)
leak in petrol tank (needed new tank at cost of $650 inc installation)
paint in a really bad way - thankfully a good cut + polish sorted that at $120
when id just spent $4000 on my first car i didnt appreciate having to fork out an extra 20% of the purchase price to get it to a standard that didnt include a working handbrake...clutch issues became apparent a few months later. managed to sell it to $4000 to some unsuspecting moron...just like i was when i bought it i suppose.
anywho, moving on - havent had to spend a cent on the bluey apart from $10 for an oil filter, $10 for an air filter and $29 for some nissan 7.5w50 oil