The first time I read your post, I thought you were making a comment about expected fuel economy. And I got a little worried seeing as how you have/had a 95 and didn't think it did very good.

Then I read it again, and lol-ed.

Good to hear you have things under control. Way too many people get deep into debt when they are young and spend their entire lives as a rat on a wheel.

Any hints as to what sort of product you are working with in the day job?

Gotcha.

Well, in addition to the $2900 one I posted on the first page (haven't seen it yet b/c the guy has been out of town), I've come across another one that I actually like somewhat better. It's black on black (my favorite for these cars), also just over 100k miles, and looks very clean from the pics. He said the dealer replaced the glow plugs a short while ago, and that the A/C system had given no problems. No rust anywhere, non-smoker. Only problem is that the dealer said the wiring harness would need to be replaced soon, but that it wasn't showing any symptoms yet.

I've already talked him down to $3500 just via text without even seeing the car. Planning to go take a look at it later this week.

I certainly owe a lot of that to good parents, but I've also worked my butt off for it. Studying and working a lot through school instead of partying all the time makes a heckuva difference.

The engineering group that I'm part of in my company does any and all sorts of turn-key custom engineering relating to precision measurement. That includes weight, dimensional, torque, force, flow, etc, etc. We do the mechanical and electrical design, any fabrication necessary, and then finally the software and physical integration. Pretty much, if you need to measure something, but can't buy a product off the shelf that will suit your needs, then we'll make it for you. It can be as simple as a go / no-go gauge for the diameter of a gun barrel, or as complex as a full-blown batching system at a concrete plant, or as precise as repeatably measuring the runout on a shaft to under 5 microns (that's a human hair split about 15 times ). Stuff like that.

It's really freaking awesome and I love it because:
1. It's challenging. Customers don't normally come to us until they've already tried really hard to do it themselves.
2. It's NEVER boring. We do projects for customers in virtually every industry. Automotive, aerospace, pharmaceuticals, energy, food, you name it.
3. What kind of mechanical engineer DOESN'T wish he had a job where he designed something, then had a full blown machine shop to build it, then got to have personal interaction with the customer when installing it.

And to think, someone is willing to pay me a fairly significant amount of money to do this.

Yup, living the dream. All those nights cursing at fluid dynamics or thermodynamics or controls homework paid off.