The evader is a piece. I've worked on many of them at the shop and I truly have nothing good to say about them. I've seen people do some pretty strange things with traxxas vehicles and for the most part repairs are minor. They are also pretty easy to work on.
I would suggest you steer away from a tamiya buggy though. Or if you are going to buy one, buy two. Or three, or four. So you have parts.. because parts for tamiya re-release kits are apparently hard to find.