To be honest, there's so many classes to choose from these days, it can br hard to make a choice. I've owned both T-maxx's and a savage, and my savage is the only one still alive after 2 years of SERIOUS off road abuse. However, it will only keep up on-road with some serious money thrown at it.There are others to consider. How about a 1/10 scale, 2wd stadium truck? the hpi rush evo is great, and it can easily keep up with some 2 speed on road cars. There's the hpi mitro mt2, 4wd 1/10 monster truck. Both of those are around £200 in the uk. Again, if you want bigger, there's the savage 4.6 now at around $400 i think in the states, or the Traxxas Revo. They seem to be gaining popularity these days, and can keep up with my tuned up savge.
At the end of the day, the choice is yours, but whatever you decide, welcome to nitro, and we're all here to help if we can!!