You should always perform regular maintainance on your car. Remember that if you take care of your car, then it will take care of you. Regular maintainence means an oil change every 3,000 miles, transmission service, spark plugs, a new PCV valve, and a new air filter every 15,000 miles, and last but not least, cooling system maintainence every 24,000 miles. I know that this sounds like a lot of time, money and effort, but would you rather spend an hour or two at most (when you do everything together) and less than a hundred dollars or would you like to be stranded some day and have to pay a tow bill and a repair bill for a new engine or transmission?