Honestly, D8 is a great car. I've driven one for two+ seasons, and an electric conversion, and it is really nice. I can afford any car I want, and got the d8 because I wanted to get into something cheap I could beat up when getting back into r/c, but honestly... it's simple, clean, easy to work on, tough, cheap to maintain, and drives great. I'm hoping a WC edition comes out with more lightweight parts from the factory, but honestly I don't care -- the car is just dialed. I really don't have any desire to change platforms.
The main thing you have to keep on top of is CVD barrels and pins. You can rebuild all the CVDs on the car for < $20, so just buy a couple of rebuild kits and keep them on hand. After each club race, just check for excessive play and replace as a precautionary measure. It's no different than any other buggy -- run in dusty conditions, things wear out. Run in no dust, they last forever. Also most of us replace the fuel clunk line and run it with our own line or run it like the losi as the fuel clunk line could be better.