RE: Please help with buying a car/truck. (Reward offered for help)
You should look beyond just Tower. They don't have all the brands (which are distributed by others).
For example, sticking with Tower, you'd never get to see trucks from Sportwerks or Losi...or Kyosho for that matter.
For the dough you are talking about, you could get the Losi LST2. Horizion Hobby and HobbyPeople are worth a look, and if your fancy includes buggies and truggies, I'd give amainhobbies.com a whirl. Your budget can get you some serious hardware (Kyosho, etc).