In the RC community I hear alot of truths and non truths out there. Everyone has opinions about RC. That is fine. All company's trucks Traxxas's Tmaxx, Revos, Hpi's Savage, Duratrax, Losi's Lst"s all have there strengths and weaknesses. You get the point. There is a Hobby Shop in San Diego named Hobby101. (Hobby101.com) I went there to see if they sold Cen parts for my GST. The owner named Jewels (its a wierd name) bad mouthed my GST even calling it a piece of junk. He said out loud this hobby shop doesn't sell junk like Cen and XTM ! (I couldn't believe how brazen he was.) He went further and even said we kick out people from Cen onto the streets when Cen comes in this shop begging us to try to sell there stuff. Also saying they'll soon go out of business. Jewels RC shop mechanic named LEE said Cen was the biggest disaster in RC history. I even remember him saying you drive them once and Cen products fall apart. Here these cocky arrognant people were killing Cen's reputation in front of many customers almost preaching out loud negatively on and on and on. I turned around holding my GST and walked right out of that hobby shop never to come back. Telling many of my friends in the San Diego area to best avoid this Hobby Shop and there rip off prices. I found out later alot people I knew felt the same way I did about this shop. Of many stories I later found out one friend who I knew went in there to get his XTM Mammoth fixed, they told him we can't help you with this junk there not made to be fixed. Thats another person that I know that doesn't go to this shop. I myself own a Cen Fun Factor, NX, Genesis and GST and I can honestly say I've had nothing but good luck with them. My friends have Cen NX's and GST's and they love them more than there Revos and Lst's they've owned. This part I'm about to say sounds like I'm sticking up for Cen well I am. When someone trys to ruin a companys reputation by talking lies you hurt the owners, reps, designers and the people that put that product together. I know two people that said revos, mgts were junk , looking into it I found out they were beginners and both people had leaned out there engines killing them in just a few runs. That is understandable. (there beginners), but to hear it from a shop who claims there the best Shop there is, then Shame on them. Point is this if I was new to this hobby and listened to those idiots at that hobby101 shop I would of never have bought a Cen in the first place. Moral of the story is dont listen to people like this out there. Believe me Cen makes great products !

Browley,

I hear alot of that kinda of CEN bashing wjen I take my rigs out to run at the LHS, and I always ask "Have you owned a CEN or driven A CEN? Not Just Seen it Or Heard About it?" "If Not then You Have No Idea What You Are Talking About!!" It always seems to be the Non-owners or Non-drivers that that have the most to say about CEN!!

Dont Get discouraged and use this question on them see what happens then..

Thank you For letting us know we are aware of this issue and it a great bummer that that hobby store does not like CEN we make a good product and as all you guys who drive and love our product it doesnt fall apart it holds up pretty good. JUST KEEp the CEN name good and we will show that hobby store what we are made of

I haven't been here in a while but I figured I would chime in.. I have had several experiences with hobby shops bashing Cen as well.. Truth is, their vendors just didn't carry the products.. Funny.. I go into these same shops and they now carry Cen.. As the old racing saying goes.. "win on sunday, sell on monday"... I went thru the same thing with my HPI Baja.. most shops wouldn't carry it saying nobody will pay $1000 for a big huge R/C car.. guess what.. Its one of the most popular cars out there right now... Hell.... Cen is now being sold by Tower Hobbies.. Boys.. You hit the big time.. Cengrats..... Cenracer.......

Thanks Cen Support and Dogman for replying. It's to bad there are people like this (including the owner) working in this hobbyshop. The problem with this is those who are just getting into the hobby, they hear this Hobbyshop Hobby101 saying Cen is no good and that person tells another person and domino effect happens from there. That $$$ to Cen that is lost because of untruths by Hobby101. In the RC community in San Diego I have heard people say dont get Cen I ask them why have you had problems with there trucks they say no. They dont own them because Hobby101 says stay away there all junk. Also from what I understand these people who are just getting into the hobby, the owner ( Jewels ) who is a controling person tells them only go to our hobbyshop not the others. The newbie that does not know better only goes to hobby101.

Browley

I bet the owner wonders why everyone orders online. I called this LHS one time and asked what time he opens and he said in a very arrogant way
(When we want). I never shopped at the hobby store. Some hobby shops are out for themselves and don't care about customers, they will try and sell you a tricycle and tell you it's the best nitro vehicle around.

I have to say most of the shops by me are pretty good... one local little shop and believe it or not a hobbytown are good.. I don't ask for or expect to get any decent advice from either of them.. I've been in this hobby longer than either has been around.. but they both have what I am looking for most of the time... There are a few snob shops in the general area, but these are run by racers who a way to serious... they are good for knowledge and surprisingly don't bash any products.. Their attitude leaves a bit to be desired, but they know their stuff.. I only go there when I go with friends who need certain parts...

All I can Say is AMAINHOBBIES.COM why waste your time dealing with local hobby shops unless you need fuel. If your a newbie Google all the answers you need you will find out everything you need to know about RC on the computer. Good Luck ..............

they will try and sell you a tricycle and tell you it's the best nitro vehicle around.

There's an Idea for you CEN

I know me and the Real Dogman usually bump heads, but I totally agree with him. Most haters have never used a CEN car.

Usually the smaller hobby shops are baised to the inventory they have. It makes perfect business to carry a limited supply when a hobby shop is small in nature. I have found a hobby shop that sells only CEN at very good prices. they carry everything you need for your cars. They have not posted all the products online, but do carry all replacement parts. [link]http://www.pradohobbyshop.com[/link]

I have pretty good luck with hobby shops in the San Diego area, except Hobby101 I will never go there again. Hobbypeople for traxxas, XTM, and hpi parts are pretty cool to deal with, but mostly I do my purchasing online. I select my parts click click next thing you know I have the parts on my door step.

I hang out alot of bashing spots and tracks in the San Diego area. You meet alot of people and hear alot of stories. A friend I met told me some kid in high school wanted to get into nitro for the first time. He just wanted a beginners nitro car. The kid went to Hobby101, the next thing you know he came out of there with a losi Muggy spending over $1100.00 car and accessories. This kid didn't know how to use the transmitter or tune the engine, (remember now he has never had an RC in his life let alone a nitro, Hobby101 knows this) in a few weeks after many attempts of trying to tune the engine he takes it back Hobby101 to be charged $60.00 ! ALMOST THE COST OF A NEW PISTON AND SLEEVE ! Later my friend heard the kid in the same month still had trouble operating his Muggy and sold his Losi Muggy and everything it came with on ebay for half price. The kid told my friend he just couldn't understand this nitro thing and it was way over complicated and expensive for him. He came in there just wanting something simple like a nitro rustler. Hearing this I can imagine what happened the kid goes in there wanting a Rustler and the pushy salesman says oh no you want something faster more powerful, he points up to the Losi Muggy on the shelf then he says it comes with a radio but you want a higher grade radio for better response. How about that $350 dollar Futaba. At this point what does the kid know he's just believing what ever the salesman from Hobby101 says. Sad thing is this kid could of really liked nitro rc if he was dealt with honest hobby people that weren't trying to squeeze every dollar from him. A traxxas rustler with an EZ start system 2wd would of been perfect.

My advice for anyone getting into nitro is:

read as much as you can, learn everything - buy a caraction mag for starters

before you go into a hobby shop know what your buying. If the salesman is pushing expensive RC parts and cars on you (that you dont want) dont hesitate, turn around and walk right out

If the hobby salesman is dissing a rc product that you owned, your friends have owned and it is a good product. This right here is a big time "Red Flag". Time for you to do business elsewere.

and last but not least online buying is getting easier and easier and there are some great deals on rc parts and cars out there

I hope this helps

I agree with all of you guys. When you want to buy an RC car, search the internet and research as much as possible. That is what I did, and it helped me a lot. I usually don't trust hobby shops because I can find advice that's a hundred times better on the net, like here.

Spread the word on self learning yourself in RC. Because of hobby shops like this more people get out of the hobby than stay in.

I took my cen to my Cough cough OLD cough cough lhs for a part and they said: "Yeah. These are made cheap". At that point I wasn't that happy. A kid spending $350 on an rc and 2 days later a LHS guy telling me the car is crap. Well, you get the point. Luckily, he was wrong. Other than the pullstart, I haven't broken anything.

Btw, that hobby shop that told me the car is horrible, they just went out of buissiness a few months ago.

"CEN, Built so well, they even outlast your local hobby shop!!!

LMAO that could be a great Ad Campaign for CEN!!!

HI I am sorry this happened to you. But I have thousands of friends here in the New york area, where we get together and we run on the weekends. I will spread the word out here in the New york area about this Hobby Shop and about your bad experience with them. Alot of my friends shop online. Rather then going to a local hobby shop.I will notify them to stay away from hobby101 or hobby101.com. People like that I am not new to, I have ran into people like that before. I have been involved in this hobby since I was 8 years old and I AM 37 NOW. Let me tell you my father once told me that there is always gonna be a rotten apple in the group. As you can see that apple is VERY ROTTEN!!! IF they want to say that they don't carry Cen parts in a nice way than that is understandable, But to belittle people especially if you are bringing him business that is NO WAY TO CONDUCT A BUSINESS BY ANY MEANS!!! I have worked in hobby shops before and I would have never belittled, degrade, or depriciate custumers especially if I know that they are the ones that sign my PAYCHECK. Once again I am truely sorry for your experience. Good luck in the future.

Same Here I do Most of my shopping for CEN products online at Prado Hobby Shop [link]http://www.pradohobbyshop.com[/link]

Rob123 that is a very professional point of view. If one person can spread the word then another then another about crooked hobby shops then eventually more and more people will stay away from hobby101 and others like it.

I was just running my rc today with some old rc friends and one person that we haven't seen for awhile just got out of this hobby. Before he knew us he was another victim of hobby101 rc shop. He paid $200.00 over on a LST2 when all the other shops out were around the $630.00 to $650.00 price. The one friend who just got out of the hobby told my friend "for what I paid on that LST2 I am just to embarrassed to run with you guys.

This is very sad and if I was him I would be embarrassed too. Lets put it this way my friend was taken to the cleaners.

I have to agree with the Cen's being good and all, but I can remember when Cen had just started up and released the Genesis. My LHS had gotten a few in and they weren't the best of trucks out there, they had many problems. But with that being said the bad rep had started here in my area for Cen, I kept an eye out on their products and watched. My LHS still doesn't carry them but are aware that the quality has come around ten fold, they use to say the same bad things about them as far a reliability goes, but in the same breathe talked about how well their Customer support was, kinda weird if you ask me. Today though I still bring my Cen products in, no bad mouthing, no smack talk, just to show them the quality of my truck, they all like it, they like how well it runs at the track and how well it bashes outside the track. They too have come around and now are considering carrying Cen products once again, and I now can get my parts ordered through them. Before I could only get my HPI parts there, this is why I would go to them, if not for that I would have stayed online only, but it's real fun and rewarding to run the pi$$ out of a T-maxx's and LST's with a Nemesis only to stop cuz the Maxx's and LST's broke. Now that is fun and a show of good quality in a Cen product. It's amazing how you guys (Cen) have now come full circle, thanks for such a good product and always being there for us, your customer.--Jess

I love haters... makes me want to dust off my Arena TR and show them the truth about our fine products.
GO to headrushhobbies.com they love CEN and truely know how good our products and service are.
Guys in San Diego aren't that fast anyways- opinion means little when you got no street credability.... notch

repost for those who didn't read this topic

i just got the gst 7.7 and i love it it keeps me busy its my 1st nitro i live in ks and i went to my closest hobby store witch is 60 miles from me and they dont get many in around there dont carry any parts for them eather the hobby guy started to talk crap on cen i told him that there realy strong and they will take a beating ive put mine threw alot of crap the things i have busted on it were from my own stupidity and they were small things whitch i expected being my 1st nitro he just helped me tune it and just explanded the bacics after that what makes me mad is thease hobby stores around here talk crap and they know nothing about the product cuz non of them have even touched one the guy that tuned mine told me it was his 1st cen that hes worked on and drove umm ok so what gives him the right to talk crap? (some peoples kids)

[&:] That would be the last time I would go to that shop. If hobbyshop disses a product that in reality is good. I would be thinking I'm done with them. There is way more other good shops out there, than to waste your time with a bunch idiots in a shop. Hobbycentral (hobby101.com) which I have talked about makes out CEN as total garbage. There is nothing good they have to say about there products. On top of that they have rip off prices and Juels ( shop owner ) who I have heard over and over again is not only a jerk but a control freak ! If you buy a part or a buggy somewere else, he will ream you with hard questions then bash any competitor you buy from. He wants YOU to exclusively buy from his shop and only his shop. Screw this dont waste your time with people like this.

Pass this on, help your fellow RC ers

I'm also always hearing that CEN products are no good,I am the ultimate fan of the Genesis and own a .46 and the LE (the LE is a bit of a shelf queen.lol),I've broken a shock and stripped the threads on the head button,and snapped 1 front bottom arm.This truck has seen landings from around 18ft and never have I had to replace anything unless damaged.To all the CEN haters in the world they can kiss my rear.