RCU Forums - Recommendation to replace Nikko 4wd buggy

Hello!

I recently joined the group because of a rekindled interest in RC cars/trucks. I have been reading and searching through the reviews and the forums looking for some really basic guidance, and I see lots of information, but not quite the "simple" answer I'm looking for, so please have patience while I ask it here.

I have a very old Nikko 4WD dune buggy that I've unboxed after years in storage. I bought a new 4500mah 7.2 battery and charger and put in fresh AAA batteries and was thrilled that it still took off screaming! Then within 60 seconds I tore the front wheel suspension off by clipping a leg of the kitchen chair!

When I took it the bench to assess repair, I saw that it had been repaired previously, and even had some nice touches like "reinforcements" to the battery cover and some strategically-placed guards to attempt to protect the suspension from being sheared off as I had just done. So I was hopeful and I spent some time with epoxy restoring all of the broken suspension control arm assemblies back to their places.

This afternoon, 4 year-old in tow, we excitedly placed it on the driveway and raced it around. My little boy was jumping up and down with glee! Until... about another 60 seconds later and we crashed it into a curb, shearing off the same front suspension control arms as before.

This taught me two things: 1) epoxy is not the bullet-proof solution I had hoped; and 2) clearly this thing was not meant to be driven into stationary objects. But it also had me bitten by the R/C bug and now I'm obsessed with finding a suitable replacement to this old Nikko buggy that my son and I can run around!

So my question: I want a 7.2V electric dune buggy/truck that will go fast and take the abuse of running into things, can be driven on off-road surfaces, and that costs ideally around $150-200. I don't want to be compelled to have to spend hundreds of dollars in upgrades to make it usable - I want something out-of-the-box that will be a lot of fun. I looked at the Traxxis Mini-T and the Rustler, as well as the Duratrax Evader... all of which look like it would be easy to hit something at an angle and tear off a corner of the car - don't any of these have bumpers?!?! :)

Any recommendations based on the criteria above.

Many thanks!