you know.... I've seen stuff like this at walmart... the one I saw was going for $129.00 and had something on the box that said it goes a whopping 27mph!!!!

Sorry, but that made me shudder. My first RC was a tyco truck(or something like that) that I was limited to run indoors due to small wheels and lack of power).... and not very well on the carpet- so I was usually restricted to the kitchen.... unfortunately... all it took was a collision with a lego car my brother made and the truck never ran again... (we were playing "chicken")

Then I got an RC10 buggy- one of those original gold tubs, and although it is now over 20 years old it will do about 35 mph and takes on jumps, rocks, trees, etc... and stills comes back for more... (I've seen these on ebay selling for about $75 or so- and that inlcudes radio, and ESC!.... although they won't be really fancy ones- it'll still get you going)

Anyway, my point is... you can get on ebay or another online auction, and get a REAL RC car for about the same price (although it would have to be an older model to be the same price), and it would out-perform, and out-last any of these "non-hobby-class" RC cars. Plus, I'm sure you would be much more satisfied... Even if you got a beater RC10 or something, you could little by little go about making improvements... anything you do to it (not counting electrics) won't cost too much.. ($20 or $30)... so by speading that out over time... it would be very affordable. (just be sure to do your homework so that what you get still has parts available... I beleive Team Associated regularly makes parts for all their older cars...