I'm thinking about trying a Serpent 1/8th RTR for $500.
I usually avoid anything RTR, but every thread I've seen in the past year has Serpent fan boys raving about them. The basic buggy seems to look good and the motor/esc isn't much worse than the mid price stuff I would be buying anyways. I'm guessing the Dragon radio is cheese, but anything with DR and separate ATL settings will be usable for a short time, just not that fully connected feeling of a 4PLS.