When I chose mine, I kept it simple as possible but still had some features. I knew I was going to try a third-channel mixture control for the motor, and picked the most basic, cheapest 3-Channel one of all the brands and it turned out to be a Futaba 3PDF (which is discontinued now of course - they love doing that every year or so)

It turned out it had some pretty nice features, as adjustable servo end points (less messing with control arm lengths), exponential steering and throttle control (makes up for what normally would be big jumps in control inputs - smooths out the control), and three model memory. Covers all my needs without being too fancy like some. The really high end car systems are totally confusing, and a boat wouldn't use half the features.

I'll put up the Futaba link, in case your interested. They have manuals online that are in Adobe which will make some good reading and you'll be able to find out what all the features mean when you go compare shopping.

http://www.futaba-rc.com/radios/cars.html

I've owned everything from the cheapest AM radio ($50 Futaba Pistol Grip) to FM computer radios, and the range was always past what I would feel comfortable with operating.

If you ever run into a range problem with your set-up, odds are it's the reciever antenna not mounted properly, or standing too close with your transmitter to power company lines or transformers.