Hey Everyone, I am new to the hobby and plan on purchasing a new nitro truck. I have looked at several, and I would like to have some opinions before I buy one. I am a beginner, but I don't want something slow and boring. I want something that can take some crashes because I know I will crash at first. I will be running it in an empty parking lot and hopefully (once I get good with it) get into racing it. I like the jato for obvious reasons, but I'm wondering if it will be durable enough for a beginner. I don't plan on beating it up or anything. All opinions are appreciated very much.

Read my post [link=http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_8389868/tm.htm]HERE[/link] it applies very well even here

The Jato is far from a newbie truck.Speed and power + Newbie and weak parts = The worst combonation. The Firestorm and the MT2 are excellent basher trucks that are user friendly to newbies.That doesn't mean they aren't bad machines,trust me.These two trucks have all the power and durability you'll ever need.Other great racing trucks are the AE GT2 and Losi XXX-NT.
Traxxas is making a living in the RC market with all the advertisments you see on each hobby site,which is fine,but brands like HPI don't just make a fortune with their models,they care about the consumers wishes.The way Traxxas advertises looks real tempting doesn't it,but out of the box is when it starts to seem not so great.I think its safe to say that speed and power are the main attractions to this hobby,and thats almost ALL Traxxas models do.Once you start jumping and bashing them you'll see the weakness in Traxxas.
Don't be decieved by Traxxas' speed claims,look at the fine print and you'll see.(Especialy for their electric trucks)

im not a newb but still have trouble with tuning. but im learning, thats all that counts!

Being the owner of 2 RC10GT's, JATO 3.3, and soon to be the owner of a SAVAGE X 4.6 I can tell you for sure that the JATO is not a good truck for beginers. Not becuase of quality cuz the JATO has taken more beatings with out breaking than RC10GT's ever did. But the JATO is just a handful for a begginer. I would to agree with nitronate that the Firestorm or the RC10GT2 would be way better to get started. Once you get the hang of it you can modify them to go faster if thats what you want. Good Luck.

+1 on the Firestorm, GT2, and XXX-NT.