I have owned (and still own) many of the early HPI products (both nitro and electric). They were not as bad as most make them out to be. I did not have many of the issues that others had with their before they moved on to other products. However, when HPI came out the the PRO3, Nitro MT, and Nitro 3, I was out on HPI due to those three are a pile, laced with problems and issues.