1999 Nissan Car Models: The Complete US Lineup

TLDR

Nissan’s 1999 US lineup covered seven nameplates: the Sentra compact, the outgoing first-generation Altima, the V6-powered Maxima, the freshly redesigned Quest minivan, the Pathfinder SUV, the Frontier pickup, and a handful of leftover 240SX coupes closing out that model’s American run. No 300ZX, no NX — both had already left the US catalog by 1999. If you’re hunting a used one today, the KA24DE four-cylinder in the Altima, Sentra SE, and 240SX has a well-earned reputation for outliving the cars it was bolted into, and the 240SX is the one appreciating instead of depreciating.

Table of Contents

• Nissan Sentra
• Nissan Altima
• Nissan Maxima
• Nissan Quest
• Nissan Pathfinder
• Nissan Frontier
• Nissan 240SX
• Buying a 1999 Nissan Today

Nissan’s 1999 model year sits in an odd spot in the brand’s history. The company was two years from the Renault alliance and the Carlos Ghosn turnaround, and it showed: some cars in the lineup were fresh (the Quest got a full redesign), some were on their last legs (the Altima was about to get a lot bigger for 2000, the 240SX was already gone from the order books by spring), and one was quietly becoming a legend nobody at the time thought to protect. Here’s every 1999 Nissan car model sold in the US, what it cost new, and what it’s worth knowing if you’re looking at one now.

Nissan Sentra

The Sentra was Nissan’s volume play — cheap, reliable, and unglamorous by design. 1999 trims ran GXE, XE, SE, and SE-L, with pricing spanning roughly $11,799 to $15,999 depending on trim and transmission.

Base cars got a 1.6-liter four making 115 horsepower; step up to the SE or SE-L and you got the 2.0-liter GA20DE making 140 horsepower, which is the one worth seeking out if you’re cross-shopping used examples. This was also the last generation before Nissan split the Sentra and 200SX coupe apart entirely — 1999 was the 200SX’s final year in the US, and it didn’t come back.

Nissan Altima

1999 was the last year of the first-generation Altima before it grew into something closer to a mid-size car for 2000. Trims were XE, GXE, SE, and GLE, with fuel economy figures landing in the low-30s on the highway across the range — respectable for a 150-horsepower 2.4-liter four with no turbo, no hybrid assist, nothing but a well-tuned KA24DE. MSRP ran from $15,790 for a base XE automatic up to $19,990 for a loaded GLE.

The Altima’s job in 1999 was to sit above the Sentra and undercut the Maxima without stepping on either — a compact-plus sedan with a bigger back seat than most rivals in its price bracket. Nissan’s own crash test records for the 1999 Altima are still on file with NHTSA if you want the government’s word on how it held up in testing.

Nissan Maxima

The Maxima was the sedan Nissan wanted taken seriously against Accord V6s and Camry XLEs, and the VQ30DE V6 under the hood is the reason enthusiasts still bring the nameplate up. 190 horsepower and 205 lb-ft from a 3.0-liter six that revs cleaner than most engines twice its age — Nissan’s engineers were proud of this one, and it showed.

Trims were GXE, SE, and GLE. MSRP spanned $21,499 for a manual GXE up to $26,899 for a fully loaded GLE automatic. The SE, with a firmer suspension and the manual gearbox, is the one that actually earned the “four-door sports car” tagline Nissan liked to use — the GLE was more about heated leather and a cassette-and-CD deck than lap times.

Nissan Quest

1999 was a genuine redesign year for the Quest, its first full generation change since launching in 1993. The new second-generation van grew 4.6 inches longer and 1.2 inches wider than its predecessor, picked up a standard driver-side sliding rear door, and added a new SE trim between the base GXE and top GLE.

Power came from a 3.0-liter V6 making 170 horsepower through a 4-speed automatic — the only transmission offered, since nobody was cross-shopping a stick-shift minivan. MSRP ran $22,679 for a GXE up to $26,819 for a GLE. The Quest was a joint venture with Ford, which also sold a badge-twin as the Mercury Villager; the two shared a Ohio assembly line and most of their sheet metal, which is why parts interchangeability between them is still a small cottage industry among owners today.

Nissan Pathfinder

The Pathfinder carried Nissan’s SUV flag through the peak of America’s truck-based-SUV era, with XE, SE, and LE trims across 2WD and 4WD configurations. MSRP ran from $24,149 for an XE 2WD manual to $32,949 for a loaded LE 4WD automatic.

Every 1999 Pathfinder used the 3.3-liter VG33E V6, good for 168 horsepower and 196 lb-ft — enough to tow a decent trailer but not enough to feel quick, which was true of most body-on-frame SUVs of the period. Fuel economy for the 2WD Pathfinder sat around 16 city, which tells you exactly what kind of decade this was for gas prices.

Nissan Frontier

The Frontier had only just replaced the old Hardbody pickup in 1998, so 1999 was its second model year — still finding its footing against the Ranger and Tacoma. Regular Cab and King Cab body styles were offered, in XE and SE trims, with 2WD or 4WD. MSRP spanned roughly $11,490 for a base Regular Cab XE manual up to around $21,240 for a well-equipped King Cab 4WD.

Base engines were a 2.4-liter four making 143 horsepower; the available 3.3-liter V6 bumped that to 170 horsepower for buyers who wanted to actually tow something. The Frontier wouldn’t get a crew cab option for a couple more years, so anyone hunting a 1999 model with four full doors is out of luck — it didn’t exist yet.

Nissan 240SX

Here’s the wrinkle in the “1999 Nissan lineup” story: Nissan stopped building the 240SX for the US market in mid-1998. What sold as 1999 240SXs were the last unsold units working through dealer stock — a quiet, unceremonious end for a car nobody realized yet would become the backbone of an entire motorsport subculture.

The S14-generation 240SX came in Base, SE, and LE trim, all running the 2.4-liter KA24DE four at 155 horsepower, rear-wheel drive, with 1998-model-year pricing (the last full price list published) spanning $18,849 to $24,939. Nissan never sold a turbocharged 240SX in the US — the SR20DET drivetrain drift enthusiasts idolize came from later engine swaps out of Japanese-market Silvias, not the factory.

That gap between what Nissan built and what the drift scene did with it is exactly why clean, unmodified examples now trade for five figures. Stock, low-mile cars have sold north of $30,000 at auction, and even rough project cars rarely go for less than $8,000 anymore. The days of a cheap 240SX are over.

Buying a 1999 Nissan Today

Twenty-five-plus years on, reliability data has sorted the 1999 lineup pretty clearly. The KA24DE four-cylinder — shared across the Altima, Sentra SE, and 240SX — has a reputation for running well past 250,000 miles with basic maintenance, which is a big part of why so many are still on the road. The VQ30DE V6 in the Maxima is nearly as durable but watch for timing belt service history, since a snapped belt on an interference engine is an expensive mistake.

The Pathfinder and Frontier’s body-on-frame construction means rust is the real enemy, especially on trucks that spent winters in salt states — check frames and rocker panels before anything mechanical. The Quest’s Ford-Mercury shared parts bin actually works in your favor for sourcing suspension and electrical components, since Villager parts often fit and cost less.

And the 240SX deserves its own warning: assume any example you’re looking at has been modified, tracked, or both, and budget accordingly for a pre-purchase inspection from someone who knows the S14 platform specifically. A clean, stock 240SX is the rarest thing in this entire lineup — rarer than a mint Quest, rarer than a low-mile Pathfinder LE — and priced accordingly.