So recently I bought my son a Losi Mini 8ight and the following has been our experience:

used the batteries they provided in the kit for the radio and they were dead in the box so we could bind until we replaced them

ran into a curb and had to replace an a-arm and front suspension mount

bought a 2s lipo and the spur gear stripped

replaced the spur gear with a steel spur gear and stripped the pinion gear

replaced the pinion gear with a 19 tooth Losi gear and had to get the adaptor Hot Racing before I could install it

took the car out (after testing the pinion and spur gear using a credit card receipt) and broke off multiple teeth from the spur gear



Mean while our HPI Savage XS Flux is killing anything we throw at it. The best purchase by far however we did upgrade the steering servo