96 GLX will not select 1-3 manually

[pgrobin]

I'm looking to buy a 1996 GLX. It shifts fine when in D (drive) but moving the shift lever to 3 or 2 does nothing, and it won't go into the 1 position at all. The car is generally in good shape, it needs a new muffler near the front and a new fog lamp (broken) to pass the safety inspection. It has approx. 97K miles on the odo. One other fault, possibly related, is that the gear position indicator does not show any indication of the gear selected. The D is missing at all times and nothing happens when the shift lever is moved from one to another position.

I'd rather not have to install a new transmission, so if this is a serious problem I need to know right away. This is the VR6 engine, don't know what tranmission version it is. Any thoughts or suggestions are appreciated.