even though you don't plan on racing yet, head down to your local track and see if some of the locals will allow you to test drive one of the kits you're looking at. Different kits have different driving characteristics.
Coming back from a hiatus, I have TLR electric and nitro buggies and the etruggy(my son's)
I am switching back to Team Associated (I ran RC10GT and Nitro TC3 before my hiatus) and got the RC8T3.1e and can tell you box stock, this has a TON more steering than the losi eTruggy. Some kits run loose, etc. Best to see if you can try one out.