Hey Art. First thing is-Ask the people who tell you these stories if they own a GST 7.7. If not then they can't tell you truely if there are issues. Second, since you have owned a CEN then you have a fairly clear picture of CEN's customer service.

Overheating 99% user error, Proper Tuning almost always solves that problem.

Quality Control is really no different than any other RC Vehicle, how many RC vehicles have you owned that did not have issues of some sort??

I own both the Nemesis and Genesis and I have tinkered with both and both run phenominally!! I beat the living hell out of them both. There were acouple issues but once you get that beast running it will run circles around any other truck I run with..And since the GST 7.7 is a mix of both the Genesis and Nemesis I can speak about the GST

What made the decision for me to buy the first(Genesis) was the fact that it was so big and powerful..then when I did get it, approx 2 weeks after I got it broke in, My lack of driving skillz found that beast running full speed head-on into a block wall!!! Damn thing stayed running and despite having broke or cracked 3 of four upper arms this damned beast was able to back away from the wall and drive about 100 yards back to my van!!!! Now in my opinion that is reason enough to buy another(Nemesis). I have been so very happy with both of my CEN trucks, but you must kep in mind that is MY opinion and it will differ from others.

And you buy all of the parts online fairly cheap!!(I dont mind waiting to save some scratch)

The most important thing to remember when people talk trash about other products "Most trash talkers have never owned the product they are trashing"

And then there is the "Dare To Be Different" factor, Sure If you have the means I think you should buy it...