What should a routine car service comprise of?

Each vehicle has a maintenance schedule that specifies when certain things are done. The schedules have changed a lot over the years and even now vary a lot from one vehicle to another. Replacing air filters is about hte same, but oil changes have stretched and often now are only when the car says a change is due; transmission fluid changes vary from every 30,000 miles to never; coolant changes vary from two years (older vehicles) to ten years (newer vehicles).

One of the most critical services in some cars does not even apply to others... sometimes even to the same make, model, and year but with a different engine! Timing belts can destroy many engines if neglected; about as many other modern engines do not have timing belts. Find, read, and follow the schedule for *your* particular car and it will last a lot longer.