Okay, so a while back, I had a parts Maxima, and I got some parts off of that for my current Max.

The parts one was from a maroon GXE 1991. I drive a black GXE 1990.

The 1991 had maroon mirrors, so instead of going through all that work to paint the maroon one black, and remove my current side mirror housing, and replace it with the painted one.... I decided it would be easier to remove the actual mirror from the maroon one, and replace it on mine (my mirror was cracked).

If you look at the inside housing, and how they come apart, it's like looking a mirrors for something that aren't even remotely related. And BTW, both of these mirrors are not heated, I checked to make sure if that could've played a factor. Oh yeah, and the end connector, to the electronic motor was different too, just so you know.

Okay it was easy to remove mine and the other one, but then I realized, the shapes are COMPLETELY different. The mirror from the 1991 will barely fit in my 1990. Hell, my 1990 mirror CAN'T fit in the 1991 housing. WTH?! If it was a difference in GXE and SE, or 1990 and anything after 1992, I would understand, but these two cars should be identical.

So does anyone have ideas of why a mirror from a 1990 GXE and a 1991 GXE would be so different?

EDIT: In the end, I ended up sanding down and painting the maroon mirror and removing my current one.

 

Because Nissan redesigned them in 1991

 

I thought they redesigned them at 1992 and up

 

..I like my tinted, heated, power mirriors.

 

no redesigned in 91, i found out hard way and bought 90 side mirror for my 91...whooops!

 

My 93 mirrors are different shaped slightly then my 94 mirrors.

 

is one a GXE and the other an SE?

 

I need to paint my SE mirrors. Black unpainted plastic mirrors look like crap IMO.

 

Nope they where both SE's.

 

I agree I would prefer the mirrors painted on my SE. With signal lights on them too.

 

u got a picture or two of the differences?

 

93 should not be different from 94

89/90 had fatter mirrors and 91-94 had the thinner (at the base) style
SE had black and GXE had body-colored