My first true rc car that I brought with my own money after moving out was a $600 Great Vigor v2 o.s powered nitro 1/10 touring car.
I was a complete noob ant they got me good, I got sucked in bad, the version I got was down graded to 2wd and had a big fancy Ford Falcon V8 super car body.... Cuz I was a sucker I brought it purely on looks... Big mistake. Over the next few years I spent a small fortune on it converting it to 4x4 and a few other goodies.... Ten years later I sold it for $30 lol