I would stay away from anything you can't get the parts for at your LHS................................
....Or if you have a online shop within a couple hundred miles that would be ideal. FOr me, it is Amain which is about 400 miles away. You get free USPS priority shipping on orders over $100 and it gets to me in 2 days.
Now to the list I would never buy again:
XTM Mammoth MT (horrible quality)
Traxxas Rustler (needs too many upgrades to be durable)
Losi Muggy (durability issues)
Mini-Baja (I guess my expectations were too high for a mini, but this car is a POS)