Help on Smoother Ride & Tire Alignment

[maxima95l]

Greetings to all Maxima riders!

I got a '95 Maxima GLE with SE spoiler @ 97K miles (the rest is OEM, no mods/enhancements yet) for about 8 months. Everything seems do be fine, except several things:

1)The ride seems to be bumpy although it has new tires (15") and there are no noises(that can come from shocks). I don't think original struts/shocks, or other parts, were replaced yet. Its not as smooth as another Maxima I drove, which was '98 SE. Since the car right now at around 102K, does it means its time to replace struts/shocks? Is Tokico Blue better than Nissan made struts? Or what are the parts that need to be checked to ensure smoother ride? I don't want to lower the car.

2) Several months ago, the leaking engine oil caused damage to rubber on front control arms, what caused the car to get misaligned within a few days after alignment. I replaced the control arms and fixed the leaking oil.
I think there is something wrong with the steering wheel, possibly steering column, because even after the car tires are aligned, the steering wheel still seems to slightly shift left, like 10 degrees, so I have to keep it slightly to the right, to keep going straight. Can it be the steering column?, or what else can affect the s.wheel, when tire alignment is fine but the s.wheel is still slightly "misaligned". I've tried three different shops since I had the car, and its always the samething. Whenever the tires get misaligned (like after a bad hole on the road) it shifts more to the left, like 20-30 degrees.

What would you reccomend to do? Any comments/ideas/links will be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

P.S. At this point I want to make sure that the basics of the car is functioning right and I'm not looking to improve the performance yet, so smooth ride, handling is more important at this point.