1995 Nissan Altima GLE from North America - Comments

I bought this car from a "friend" but being a girl and not knowing much about cars I got ripped off! I did buy the altima with high miles, but I loved the leather and it looked both luxury and sporty that's why I liked it. I have had to replace the oxygen sensor. I had an oil leak so I had to replace the oil pan gasket. I replaced the alternator twice! I had to put a new positive terminal in, and a new battery. Soon I will be replacing the bearing in the a/c compressor. My car makes a very loud whining noise and it gets worse as I accelerate. The air bag light would not shut off so I had to get that fixed.

The look of the car is nice, but its not that reliable.

OK.. First.. Not to be a jerk, but at the mileage your car had, an Oxygen sensor is only a small issue, and a simple maintenence item.

As well as an "oil pan gasket" and an AC bearing going bad.

One thing to note.. How was the vehicle treated when it was new to the day you purchased it?

That's the thing about used cars. They don't always meet perfect expectations because of, well to put it simply.. they aren't new anymore.

The 93-97 Altima was actually a fine car, and an excellent car if maintained well.

Any manufacturer will have a bad image for mistreatment caused by those people that buy new stuff every few years and barely change the oil and go as far as maybe putting new tires on it after putting 100,000 miles on the car and trading it in with the old addage, "ridden hard and put away wet".

All I'm trying to say here is that I've met some people with 200,000 miles on the odometer, and all they have done is maintained the car and replaced the usual tuneup items, and changed the oil every 3000 miles and fixed anything minor that came up. (like replacing bulbs).

No car is perfect, but even with the more average styling of the Altima, it really is an excellent car if you find one that's been taken care of, and I can't see a car of the era for the price that would whip an Altima for the person that wants more of a mid size car for very little coin and not end up with a stripped down Accord or Camry.

My boyfriend had some of the same problems with his 1996 Altima. He had to replace the oxygen sensor and his radiator and his damn airbag light keeps flashing. He's taken it to a few places to get that problem fixed, but most places were going to try and charge him a load of money to fix it. So what was his solution?---Take off the instrument panel cover and stick a piece of black electrical tape over the blinking light. Voila! No more annoying blinking light! Also, his Altima is running at about 150k miles now, he got it with 120k on it.

As stated befrore you bought a car with high mileage. the issues you are having are due to poor ownership, not poor craftsmanship.

Can a 96 Altima really pass 200k miles on the odometer? I just bought a used 96 Altima with 127k miles from a dealer in San Diego. It runs awesome and smooth so far. I love it. The dealer told me these Nissan's can reach 300k miles, but I know that they will say anything.

Yes you can reach 300k miles. I have a 93' at 200k miles and still going stong. Ilove it, but don't like the continuous blinking of the air bag light.

I agree with those comments above, my car altima was made in March 1996 USA, I bought it in 1997 Taiwan, that was say it be stored in the warehouse one year. my Oxygen sensor 'air conditioner and radiator were replacement 6 moths ago! so far it's excellent! it runs over 87500 miles now!

Sounds like to me that you are doing pretty much general maintenance to your car. You said it was a higher mileage car. Oxygen sensors are considered part of a normal tune up now. most people don't change them until they give trouble. Higher mileage vehicles do start to have alternator problems the brushes and components in them will only last so long before wearing out. As far as the oil leaks, again general maintenance higher mileage cars do begin to have leaks the gaskets and seals will dry and crack after a while. I have 133k miles on my 94 Altima ands with regular maintenance I have no leaks car runs and drives greats. It sounds as if the person that you purchased the car did not maintain it well and now your having to play catch up. But nothing that you have described is out of the ordinary.

I am trying to figure out if my oxygen sensors on my 97 Nissan Altima has gone bad. My car gets become jumpy if I accelerate too much, or it will just turn off completely and I can restart again if I give it a few minutes. I had the oxygen sensor unplugged by a mechanic until he orders the part. The car runs fine now without the oxygen sensor, but it still will get jumpy sometime when I accelerate so I am hoping it's not just that sensor that has gone wrong. Any comments would be helpful, I see that a lot of you have had to replace it. Thanks.

The oxygen sensors (O2 sensor) goes bad on these cars. It's a gremlin with these cars. It's a rather inexpensive repair considering all the kinds of things that can actually go wrong with a car. O2 sensor failure is common on all cars pretty much anything early 90's and newer. I had a used car dealership. Bad O2 sensors seemed to be a reoccuring problem with cars on my car lot. I can't tell you how many I had to replace. Subaru Legacy is also bad for burning out O2 sensors as is Ford Taurus.

I got a 94 altima with 265k on it and it runs like I just bought it just minor problems as with any other car love it.