Automotive engineers are concerned with the development of passenger cars, trucks, buses, motorcycles or off-road vehicles. They do one or more of the following: Design new products or modify existing ones. Troubleshoot and solve engineering problems.
In general, mechanical engineers have specialty knowledge and can only “fix” things within their specialty. Actually, many engineers don't fix much of anything. We employ technicians for the hands on work.
Can you make 300k as an engineer? There you can expect to make 2-300K a year as a senior software engineer, which for most people, is all they ever need. The average pay for a senior software developer in the United States is $106,575, which is plenty for an upper middle class income.