The best thing to do to get into the hobby in the first place is to stay away from the high dollar rigs all together. 1/8 scale buggys (brand name ones) are expensive, and yes very tough, but when you do and you will break things those parts are also very expensive. Where as if you buy a vehicle aimed more for bashing or beginners (again brand name stuff) the parts are cheaper and by design they are designed not to break as easily.
Things such as the savage, MT2, LST2 (expensive yes, but still noob friendly), aftershock, and even though I cant stand traxxas products because they just break so damn easy the parts are dirt cheap though. All of these vehicles can be purchased for under $500 (Except for the LST2) brand new ready to run.
Once you decide you like the hobby, then you can look at the more expensive stuff, I hate it when I see people jump head first into this hobby with an 1/8th scale buggy or truggy with these dreams of bashing the hell outta it and they end up spending way more money than they ever dreamed of and give up on the hobby way before they should.
Last edited by wes95_z28; 05-15-2008 at 10:25 PM.
Reason: spelling