Just came from the local hobby shop and trouble shooting revealed a bad receiver. Kudos to the RC HOBBYHOUSE (Waverly Iowa)!! Especially since he doesn't carry Redcat and he had no qualms about giving me a half hour of time to get to the bottom of this.. then didn't charge me anything..

He stocksa compatiblereceiver but he expects RedCat will have no probablems sending me a new one (since the car hasn't even been driven yet). I'll call RedCat this next week and discuss with them.

Either way... looks like there should be a working RC car under the tree Christmas morning!!
Thanks-Brian