What are the auto board's current thoughts on transmission fluid. Got my oil changed at a new place with great reviews for honesty, good prices, etc. At checkout said the upcoming recommended stuff, and says they recommend changing transmission fluid every 30k miles. Service manual says 97k. I'm at 74k right now, but it is a 10 year old vehicle. Was thinking about changing it because it's 10 years old, but every 30k sounds a bit much for a car that I don't drive rough at all, lots of highway miles.

So, do you follow service manual? Or this 30k recommendation? Or something else time based?
Does anyone recommend flushes? Or is that still considered bad?
Worth doing it yourself?
It appears service interval on the filter is supposedly way longer than the fluid change interval. Would you change the filter as well?

Any thing else to know?

Follow the service manual unless they claim it is a lifetime fluid (it's not). However, your service manual says the interval is 97k? What a weird number.

Service intervals in the manual are divided into 7,500mi intervals. For the normal service life it's at 97,500 and for the severe maintenance schedule it's every 45, 000 miles. And the manual makes no mention of a transmission filter, though the part exists for it.

Only reason to change it before the manual recco is if you cooked the fluid towing, mudding, etc.

Where is this oil change place so we can add it to the list of upsell artists to avoid?