My 16s needed some massaging with the angle grinder. Not much, maybe a 32nd off the back of the calipers in select places. The edges needed to be knocked off the control arm joint at its lowest point inside the wheel (this was the worst rubbing) and a few small corners taken off the dust shield. Nothing cosmic if you are OK with a little custom work, totally doable and its running great with no rubbing.
I wonder if 16"wheels from a different manufacturer would behave differently? In retrospect I would have ordered one wheel and test fit it before ordering all four. I did pop one on the hub before getting the tires mounted, but I neglected to spin it! I fixated on the Method wheels I bought because they came in a 5x120 pattern...but only in 16".
***I forgot to add that 17" would have cleared easily since the 16's were only rubbing by between a 32nd to a 16th max. I've had a chance to drive it now for a few weeks with the full wheels/tires, lift and new subframe bushings installed and my biggest observation is that the ride around town on the horrible New Orleans streets is much, much better than what I got from the OEM 255/50/18s. The tradeoff is that while the car handles potholes, etc. much better at the suspension, it is a bit more bump responsive in the steering wheel. I also think that it is just a little bit less planted at highway speeds, which makes sense I suppose since it is 1.5" higher at the suspension and perhaps 2.5" higher overall. Also, the 275 Yokohamas are not optimized for highway driving. I picked them based on cost and that they were rated one of the best AT tires for highway driving and noise and I'm happy so far. I was worried that the X5 would seem more ponderous and/or bouncy like my lifted 93 grand cherokee. Thankfully it does not...if you didn't know it was lifted and had larger tires, you'd be hard pressed to tell the difference on a normal road at normal speeds around town.