I like the 1/5 scale Bajas too. But $1000 is just for the car. It'd probaly be more like $1500 by the time you're ready to go.

For instance, I'm not sure the $1000 price includes the mammoth steering servo.

Talking to an owner of one in the LHS, he said prepare for how loud they are and make sure you have a lot of space to run them in.

It would be nice to have such a big model because one could run it so much further away from oneself and still see it well.