Whats up guys, I'm new to this site cause I'm about to buy a 96 Maxima GLE. The car has 68,000 miles on it. Seems to be in pretty good condition.

I had some questions before I buy the car

How different is the 96 from the 97-99?

What should I look for in particular before I buy the car mechanically speaking?

Is there any way to check if the guy messed with the odometer?

Any other advice that you guys can give me about the car, like mechanical or electrical defects that a maxima might have, I would appreciate.

 

If you search you might find some of these questions already answered:

All 4th gens ('95-'99) have the same power rating (190hp). Some minor difference might the the rims that it comes with, the tail lights look different, the headlights are glass on a 96 (IIRC) and plastic on the 97-99's.

Have a mechanic check out the car to make sure it runs good.

Run a carfax to check out the history of the car.

I don't think there are many recalls on the '96.

Just make sure that you want to own a heavy automatic before you buy the car so that you don't have buyer's remorse 2 months down the road

 

Main thing on a 95-96 is the starter, also some people have had problems with the 5-speeds. Load on the shims was apparently incorrect from the factory, this will give you play were the driveshaft enters the tranny. Also might want to try to run a self diagnosis on the ecu to see if you have any of the common problems(o2 sensors) that could be used to bargain down the price. Recently a lot of people have been having trouble with the knock sensor(including me), but a 96 with that few miles sounds pretty good.

 

check the O2 sensors and if you are buying it from a dealer run a self diagnostics.Sometimes these dealers turn off the CEL and pretend as though they didn't know.This happened to me at one dealer and i'll never go to him again.He had the wire removed from the CEL in the dash.