I'm getting ready to buy a 1997 maxima SE 5 speed today but it has a chrome grille. I thought the SE came with a colored grille. Does this probably mean it was in an accident and they just used a GXE or GLE front to fix it?

I have a 97 SE and it has a colored grille... i dont know if the 97 SE ever came with a chrome one, prolly not. probably was replaced like you said

Only SE's had colored grills

Someone could have just replaced the original grille with a chrome one. Not necessarily because of an accident or anything, but just because they wanted to.

If your planning on buying the car, check out to see what it really is. The person selling it to you might say its a SE when its really a GXE just to get a few more dollars, run the vin and you'll find out. Another way to tell if its a SE is the body colored door handles, most people wouldnt bother changing those.

Also the se's dont have the chrome trim around the windows,and is the only model with the white face gauge cluster stock.

Mine is a GXE, look at pic below, SEs came with body color grilles. Look for other clues like white gauges, intermittent wiper switch, fog lights, third brake light (if it has one it;s not an SE, since the SE have the light on the spoiler). and like the other people above said check the door handles and the molding. Hope it helps

also SE'S came with bose system , sunroof

i have a 1997 gxe, but it was converted to an se, no chrome anything, colored grille, aftermarket gauges, sunroof, no int. wipers though, fogs and leather interior, powerheated seats, and led on spoiler....and grilles just snap on and off, i changed my grille 3 times, takes less than a minute....i found out it was gxe from the vin number....even has the maxima se titanium emblem....

yea, only way to make sure is the vin, plus get a carfax report, $20 bucks now is better than $20+ bucks, plus a headache, hassle, stress in the future for problems that could have been avoided

Check out www.slickdeals.net. There was a free CarFax Report yesterday and as of this post it was still working.