My wife and I have owned a 1998 Camry for 2-3 years. We've been pretty broke so we haven't been able to maintain it properly. We've had the oil changed only a few times, replaced the battery, and bought 2 new tires.

Times have been a bit better lately so we'd like to take the car to a mechanic and have him go over it to keep it running for as much longer as possible, but I can imagine some unnecessary work being done if I take that approach. What would you guys recommend I do? Are there things on the car I can inspect myself to see if they need fixing, and then instruct a mechanic to fix those things?

Edit: It has 178K miles.