Well acdc, you are asking one of the most loaded questions there is. Each person is going to push their own buggy. This is how I got into the 1/8th scale buggy scene. I raced monster truck but was really pulled to the buggy class because of the speeds, competition, and the buggy counts. Thats the most popular class at my track. I didnt want to spend a lot of money because if I didnt like it, I would be stuck with a big investment. With the resale on these things, Id never get close to my money back. Im also one to be different. The majority of the buggies at my track are LOSIs, X-Rays, then the rest here and there. So by default, LOSI's and X-Rays were eliminated. Thats just me. They are good buggies, but again, I want to be different. Im a Mark Pavidis fan so the Kyosho was the top on my list to start. MY LHS carries some Kyosho parts, but you know you can get anything you want on line, so parts availability should not be a deciding factor. Everyone should have spare parts on hand, otherwise you have to wait for the UPS truck to show up, or take a ride to the LHS. Im stocked up good. Price was a major factor too as I said earlier. I researched heavily, and also asked the other guys at the track about their buggies. Taking all of this into consideration, I got the Kyosho Inferno US Sports Ready set. Out of the box its a good starter buggy for under $400. Im just starting out, so good for me. A ready to run buggy was going to be my first buggy purchase, but which one was the question? I made the decision. I was consistently finishing in the B-Mains. Now I am upgrading it here and there. I now qualify in the A-Mains, and 4th in the A is my best finish. Not bad for racing against $1000+ set ups. Im not pushing this buggy. Its not for everyone. Im also not going to bash any buggy either. If you line up all the buggies side by side, you will NOT see anything earth shattering from one buggy to another. The concept is the same. So you are going to get blitzed with responses and probably have 20 different buggies represented in this thread. YOU.........need to decide what are the important factors for YOU. Since you said your going to run on the street and BMX tracks, with an occasional race here and ther, I say you need to look at cost, and durability. These are the only things I see that are really different. Cost is obviously different. Other things like parts availability, hop ups, maintenance requirements, ease/difficulty of maintenance. All buggies are close to a tie here. They all are equal in the pros and cons in these categories. So decide what the important factors are first. If you come up with two or three buggies in a tie, then what should be the next important facotr(s)? Youll eventually decide on the right buggy for you. So take you time, and youll find the right buggy for you. Great luck to you!