Establishing a budget is one of the essential criteria you should consider when deciding to feed your need for speed. An RC hobby can cost you a good deal of cash, so be ready to spend a reasonable amount on a quality unit. If you are new to this hobby, it may be wisest to scale into this hobby by purchasing a good RC car, but not spending the big bucks on expensive brands until you have had the opportunity to experience the hobby. This experience will help you know that this is where you want to invest your hobby money, and also become more opinionated as to what kind of RC hobby you want to focus on.  Purchasing a better value, lesser known brand is one way to keep your RC hobby affordable, as it reduces your initial investment, and parts and upgrades will usually be less expensive.  

Generally speaking, electric cars are less expensive to maintain than other types of RC units but it is not hard to find good deals for both nitro and electric vehicles on legitimate websites that sell affordable hobby-grade units. Purchasing supplies like spare parts, and accessories in bulk is also a good way to lower costs, so find a website/supplier that carries a complete set of parts for the RC Car you have purchased. When you buy accessories, parts, and supplies from a single source, you reduce shipping costs, and you want select a vendor who maintains their spare part inventories for your RC Car, and can ship parts to you quickly. It can very frustrating, if you cannot drive your RC car, because you have to wait weeks or months for a key part.

It is also best to target websites that stand behind the products they offer with a good warranty. Search online and you will find a good number of websites selling RC units. When deciding on a supplier to trust, look beyond their prices and choose an outlet that offers good manufacturer warranties on top of excellent after sales service and an extensive supply of spare parts for the products and units they carry, and fast delivery. Find a store that focuses on helping first timers like you to find an affordable means to enter the RC car hobby through reasonably priced units, excellent customer support, and has the parts when you need them.