Toyota Repair: 1997 Toyota Camry -- Bad Struts?, strut mounts, toyota camry

Question
I have a 1997 Toyota Camry with 105,000 miles. A few people have told me I should have the struts checked. The car does tend to bottom out on bumps and is squeaky. How do I know if my car has structs or shocks or both? How much should it cost (including labor) to fix whatever I have (struts or shocks)?  Do you recommend getting this repaired at a dealership? How many miles do they normally last? I recently had the 90,000 mile checkup (I had it at about 98,000 miles) and nothing was said about struts. Even more recently I had the spark plugs replaced due to a service engine light, again nothing was said about the struts. Both repairs were at a Toyota dealership. About a month ago I took my car to Midas and asked them to check alignment. They advised the alignment was fine, but my front tires were bad. I replaced those, but again, no mention of the struts. I'm trying to determine if these should have been looked at with any of the recent work on my car or with any regular mileage check up.

Thanks for your help!
Jennifer

Answer
The toyota dealer normally does not recommend strut replacement unless they are leaking or weak, in some cases the strut mounts make noise going over bumps, in that case only the upper mounts need to be replaced, have a toyota dealer check to see if struts are needed, not a tire shop.