Would you buy cheap and upgrade or buy expensive and not worry?

Would you buy cheap and upgrade or buy expensive and not worry

  • It depends on my mood. ;)

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    22

KyleRC

Well-Known Member
Messages
315
Here’s just an opinion of mine and kind of would like to see what you think about:
I think it’s funny that some people buy these cars thinking they can hop them up and get the greatest car ever I noticed it’s kind of a trend with rc cars now. But in reality you are spending almost just as much as a real high performance car. And in some cases the high performance car is better. I’m not trying to make anybody angry I’m just trying to help: such as if you are looking for something cheap hopefully I helped you out a little just to spend a little more...but don’t spend too much.

What I have learned in the past few years is no matter how big my motor is or how many Volts or amps my battery puts out is that the car will usually only do as much as it’s designed to do(maybe a little obvious for some)unless of course you are building the fastest torment ruckus or amp in the world you have an acception but would you really drive the fastest amp in the world at your local track? If you said no, my opinion is, good choice because I don’t think a driving battery did so well for me...probably not so good for anyone.

NOTE: Now my post is just for informing and entertaining only. I DO NOT have anything against ECX vehicles or any others. I just have to say if your building the fastest car in make it the FASTEST and have fun.

It would be great if you could choose an option on the question thing. I feel like it would be interesting to see the results.
 
Great question. I think that buying a cheap car and upgrading is excellent, but you really need to know its limitations.

For example Torment vs Slash. If you spent the difference in money on upgrades, id say you could end up with a better car.

But if you took that same Torment and tried to make it faster and better than say an 8S e-Revo, id say it would be very difficult, ineffective or even cost you more
 
I'd add "It depends on my budget" to the votes on your poll, LOL. :D
I like to build/tinker/wrench as near as driving/bashing my RC's. If I'd had enough money, probably I wouldn't have the rigs I have now. Better ones or maybe different. But I also enjoy upgrading them, and it's great when you see better performance. Not talking about looks, there's a lot of upgrades available really good for looks, not for better performance or durability.
I'm sure that if most of us could afford the best RC car of any class, we'll start looking for tires, bodies, RPM ( you name it) even before unboxing it!!!
 
I think I'm slightly outside the parameters of choice you have laid out. I tend to simply buy what I want (within reason, I have no need for a $3000 race RC). I don't race, so my needs are usually more subjective as far as qualities behind the purchase.
 
I chose the "depends on my budget" option. I love building and modifying my cars, but it also depends on my budget and if it is cost effective for my initial upgrade. I bought my Ruckus as the brushed version because of my budget at the time, and had a cheap brushless setup ready to swap into it. Total cost was way under the cost of buying the brushless Ruckus. My Arrma Raider XL was just the opposite. It got a better deal buying the BLX version than to upgrade the brushed version. My most recent purchase was a Vaterra V100-S Camaro. After comparing total costs, it worked out cheaper for me to go brushed and buy a faster brushless setup than to buy the brushless version.

I don't take gearing changes into account since I have a bunch of pinion gears from my racing days. Also, I am not trying to break any land speed records with these builds. Keeping my cars running with a quick bashing speed on 2s lipos, and the ability to handle a 3s for those need for speed days is my ideal. Seems my only real breakage is from when I am trying to get a new personal high speed record from one of my cars.
 
ECX vehicles are fairly inexpensive compared to other brands. We all upgrade our vehicles to make them the way we want them. We may spend as much upgrading over the long haul, but at least the vehicle is just the way we want it. Besides, anyone who buys the expensive rig and just leaves it alone isn’t a true hobbyist. Building, customizing and repairing them is the reason most of us are involved in this hobby. In my eyes, the only thing separating my RC’s from toys is the fact that I’ve built and customized them to my exact liking. Well, I guess they’re all toys but I know I take pride in making mine really cool toys and toys like no one else has.
 
For me it's all about my budget, which is pretty small. Buying a car or truck at $200 is a huge purchase for me. When I bought my first truck back in August or September, it was really hard to justify spending more. Additionally, when purchasing something for my son, it's hard to buy something that cost a lot, when he might loose interest in it with in a year as most kids do. With all that being said my son and I are having a really good time upgrading our trucks and going out bashing (slowly working on heading to a track). We have been looking for something to do together through out the year instead of having something we can only enjoy when the weather is good and this is it. We are having such a good time that we are already planning on buying the Amp MT kit for each of us and building them together. So from where I stand on the whole thing is, we will always buy cheap and do the upgrades all day.
 
For me it's all about my budget, which is pretty small. Buying a car or truck at $200 is a huge purchase for me. When I bought my first truck back in August or September, it was really hard to justify spending more. Additionally, when purchasing something for my son, it's hard to buy something that cost a lot, when he might loose interest in it with in a year as most kids do. With all that being said my son and I are having a really good time upgrading our trucks and going out bashing (slowly working on heading to a track). We have been looking for something to do together through out the year instead of having something we can only enjoy when the weather is good and this is it. We are having such a good time that we are already planning on buying the Amp MT kit for each of us and building them together. So from where I stand on the whole thing is, we will always buy cheap and do the upgrades all day.

Quality time with the kids is one of the great fringe benefits of this hobby. I’ve just recently, within the last year, gotten hooked again. Mostly because my 11 year old daughter took an interest to it. I drive a very much modified Ruckus, she drives an Arrma Granite that we’re just starting to mod now. Not much available for her truck so we’ll have to get creative. Gotta say, that Granite is a tough truck, specially for $140 out the door. Best of luck and enjoy the quality time with your boy.
 
I started with an ECX Boost buggy and upgraded it with a mish-mash of Associated, RPM, Traxxas, parts. Finally installed a Hobbywing Justock ESC and used Reedy M2 17.5T motor to race it at the local track. I leaned SO MUCH trying to upgrade that car with parts that weren't designed for it. Then I got a TLR 22 3.0 race buggy as a roller and moved all the electronics over. That car was a bazillion percent better than the Boost-- a total joy to drive. However, in the almost two years that I have had it (racing) I have not broken a SINGLE THING on it. And there's no reason to upgrade anything. Sure there are tuning option parts but other than ESCs and motors-- no upgrades! The car is so awesome it's boring! But the ECX cars, cheap as they are, are EXCELLENT for tinkering with.
 
I started with an ECX Boost buggy and upgraded it with a mish-mash of Associated, RPM, Traxxas, parts. Finally installed a Hobbywing Justock ESC and used Reedy M2 17.5T motor to race it at the local track. I leaned SO MUCH trying to upgrade that car with parts that weren't designed for it. Then I got a TLR 22 3.0 race buggy as a roller and moved all the electronics over. That car was a bazillion percent better than the Boost-- a total joy to drive. However, in the almost two years that I have had it (racing) I have not broken a SINGLE THING on it. And there's no reason to upgrade anything. Sure there are tuning option parts but other than ESCs and motors-- no upgrades! The car is so awesome it's boring! But the ECX cars, cheap as they are, are EXCELLENT for tinkering with.
I agree I race a 2wd torment that I had for a long time and this weekend me and my dad are racing the other one we had as a parts car that we built. The ECX cars are usually very fun and capable. I think some of the guys are a little jealous:D
 
My up graded Amp was running in the 2wd buggy class as a stadium truck last weekend because there was only 2 stadium trucks and not enough to run a separate class. Normally buggies run almost 2 seconds a lap faster than stadium trucks. I was in 4th until the last lap when I broke a front axle at the bottom of the double. That truck taught me so much about racing and bashing. When I was ready to buy a real race truck I knew how to set it up because of the things I learned from my ecx. I’m not gonna lie, I spent far more learning and upgrading my ecx, but it saved me $ when I went for a real race truck. I still race my Amp and it’s comparatively cheap to maintain. Plus it’s my build, and I make it do something it’s not designed to do. Trust me, I get asked a lot about my truck and people are amazed at how fast it is and how well it handles. No Traxxas has beaten it yet and that says something.
 
I have found that in 12 plus years in this hobby that even if I buy a "quality" RC I have to modify it to my liking. So, I now buy RC's in" KIT" form or buy used ones and modify them to my liking. (y)
 

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