My GLE Maxima needs serious work :(

Hey everybody how're you all doing I'm new to the forum, proud to be one of you guys. But holy jesus, I have a lot of problems with a car I just bought, and I'm going to have to fix some of these things myself. The problem with that is I am a complete novice with car repairs, and I don't know what half of the problems I have even mean. So if you guys could help me define some of this car terminology that would be very much appreciated. Anyway the car is a 1998 Nissan Maxima GLE, not too shabby I guess? Well anyway here is the sheet the repair shop gave me;
needs rear brakes with rotors & calipers (what are either of those?)
e-brake doesn't work (that's very unspecific, and how do i fix that?)
passenger side wiper blade hits hood (is that even a problem?)
needs hood supports (now does that mean the actual hood supports, or the prop rod?)
serpentine belt is cracked (i know what that is but how much do those usually cost?)
steering rack is worn (what does that mean?)
left front wheel stud is broken (don't know what that is again?)
has exhaust leak from cat back (clueless again)
has trans fluid leak (that has to be bad)
missing two wheel lug nuts (that sounds easy to fix...or is it?)
PCM & check engine lights are on (what is that?)
DTC P0500 VSS Sensor bank 1(what is that?)
P0600 TCM TO ECM Communication line problem (what is this?)
Needs battery cables (sounds expensive?)
leaking rear struts (what is that?)
needs tune up (how do i do that?)
alternator is over charging (what does that mean and how do i fix that?)


Yeah so basically those are all my problems, and I have no idea how to fix any of them, or even start on them. I realize the first step is finding a Nissan Dealership, and Pep Boys in order to find some damned parts, and then secondly getting one of those Haynes repair manuals will probably help. Allthough I still need a lot of clarification on this, cause I have no idea what I'm doing. Anyway many many thanks to anybody who can be of help.

Most of the things you have listed need to be done by someone who knows what they are doing. This is a lot of work for a 11 year old vehicle and its probably not worth fixing. The stuff you have listed is easily a few thousand dollars or more. I just sold a 1996 with 175k and it needed rear struts and a few minor things. How many miles are on this?
It won't pass inspection with the check engine light on.
I would dump this ASAP it sounds like a money pit.

.... sounds like a money pit.

...JY fairy tale?

A majority of those things are not a problem, and many don't even need to be fixed ASAP. It almost sounds like the mechanic nit picked the car to try to nickle and dime you. Adjusting the whipers is like a 5 minute job or less, but they will charge you about 20 bucks to do it. YOu should turn your attention to breaks, belts, and alternator. Thoes are the major things that need to be fixed. Everything else can be done in time. Do the ECU codes next. All are rather easy to fix with simple hand tools. Check out the 4th gen section of maxima.org for detailed how to's on every problem you have. There are even instructions there on how to pull ECU codes and find out other things that are broken.

These cars are generally fantastic. Dont get discourage. Working on them isn't all that hard as long as you have a decent metric set of tools.