I had the NexSTAR trainer and, after listening to many people both here and on other locations (a great write up in the AMA's Sport Aviator magazine) I sort of wish I had decided on the Avistar. From what I hear, it can go from a doscile trainer to a rather agressive aerobatic with not much more than an engine change. The above posts back that up so it probably would be a great trainer for you. I did enjoy the NexSTAR but very VERY quickly grew out of it after solo.

The NexSTAR is RTF at $399.00 but, as I said, after solo, there isn't much you can do with it except fly training orbits, landings, and some very limited aerobatics. It has a strong engine (OS46FSi). I removed the existing Futaba radio and put in my computer Airtronics RD6000 so I could buddy box with my instructor who had Airtronics. As such, I did not use the AFS (Automatic Flight Stabilization) and didn't feel that I needed it at all.

You can probably do equally as well with the Avistar as a trainer plus get the benefit of an after trainer fun fly aircraft.