I drive to meetings in a £200 car, with over £1500 worth of rc in the boot. The difference is one of them isn't being raced in a competition. The buggy cost doesn't really matter to me. The gear inside cost a lot more.

There not more expensive there much cheaper than they use to be 20 years ago (take the Schumacher CAT £249 for a 2000 in 1995 it now £300 for the CAT K1 Aero inflation accounts for more than that). I don't think £50-70 on a kit between middle end stuff and the latest and greatest makes any difference. Middle of the range still exist either as end of life high end models from the main manufactuers or the raft of Chinese partial copies

It all cheaper than 20 years ago
+ four high end NiMH to be competitive as a minimum when I last raced as apposed to 2 medium lipos
+ 27/40 Mhz transmitter and dont forget the 5 sets of crystals as apposed to a 2.4Ghz set
etc.

As many others have said, I don't think they've got more expensive at all. What has happened though is that prices have got extremely variable.

Lets take Durango - When they first brought the DEX410 out it was the most expensive car on the market at £400 or thereabouts. Today you can pick up a V4 for £270, and the 410R v3 cost £180 when they stopped selling it. One basic design but wildly different costs.
Of course the first cars had a lot more machined alloy and a lot less polymer parts but overall reliability, strength and performance has improved. Durango realised you could make essentially the same car for a lot less.

It cost them as many customers as it made.

You can make a competitive buggy for very little, but even an 'expensive' buggy isn't. Compared to so many other hobbies £300-400 is not a big deal. You can get a 210V2 for £160, or an RB6 for twice that. Most club racers won't really notice the difference (if they claim to its normally that they just a a better setup for the preferred one) but lets be honest who really wants the 'budget' Durango when the 'luxury' Kyosho is still affordable?

And thats the point. Companies sell £300+ cars because people buy £300+ cars. Willingly. A more expensive car has to be better, it just has to be, so we have to have the best we can afford.

My first 27mhz acoms tx cost me 39.99 back in 198*cough*
Look online for an acoms tx and its roughly the same price.
So it's not all doom and gloom :D

tell me about it, that would have been about enough to keep me in consumables (at RRP) for a month's racing on my MTB.
If I'd broken anything significant, you could probably double it. New frame (£1000 minimum), forks (£5-600), wheels (£500)....... Not to mention having to have at least three sets of tyres, two mounted up. In case the course conditions changed.

And prices have gone mental since I packed in. 10 years ago.

24 years ago, for a top line 4wd buggy you would have paid:- £230 for a kyosho lazer ZX-R or £275 for a yokomo works 91.
considering today you would pay for a similar spec 4wd :- b44.3 - £299 , k1 aero - £294 , or a losi 22.4 - £224 prices are not that expensive.

Another way to keep costs down is to be focused when putting in an order with the hobby shops.

A lot of them offer free shipping if you spend a certain amount so it's worth shopping around to find one with live stock levels, so you can ascertain whether they've got everything you need in one order.

Too many people think small, you need to think big. If you're up to say £35 with an order you might as well get another 2 pairs of tyres at £8 each to get the "free shipping when you spend £50" deal rather than wasting a fiver on delivery, after all you'll use them eventually.

I have an A4 pad "the ledger" in which I write down all money that comes into my account and all that goes out with dates, and I check my balance every few days. This way even before transactions have cleared I know how much I can spend without going overdrawn.

Leading on from this I make liberal use of my credit card to buy stuff I won't have the cash for for a couple of weeks, but I make sure using it never costs me a penny by paying the balance in full within 28 days. This way you can take advantage of special offers that might no longer be there when you get paid.

Hope this helps, all of the above is the only way I can afford to race competitively.

buggys have never been cheaper than they are now, and racing is so much cheaper in terms of motors and cells.

A £200 procat in 1989 is like the K1 aero costing £800 now. BARGAIN DAYS.

TBH, if I had to go to that level of penny pinching and detailed financial planning, I'd not have started up again. As when it comes right down to it, it's still just playing with toy cars. Unless you are right at the pointy end, nationally (or internationally), it's not worth it.

It's the only reason i "spent" that much on bikes, the level i was at and the deals I could get (free stuff, or very nearly) meant that prize money plus a small input from wages could keep me racing at a high level........ Until my sponsor pulled the plug on the team. Oops.

Racing is fun, some take it more seriously than others. I'm only ever racing for fun, not because i can't do well, i choose not to be bothered.

If that's your opinion that's fine, I was just trying to show the OP that you can make your money go a long way if you think before throwing your wad on the counter.

Also I forgot to mention, I gave up my TV Licence recently which is saving me another 150 quid a year, plus I no longer have to sit through hours of "celebrity cretins" twaddle and left-wing propaganda interrupted by 10-minute ad breaks.

Even if my financial situation were better i'd still be like this just because i'd rather that money was in my pocket than someone else's. Most successful business people are pretty tightfisted and get their staff to re-use jiffy bags etc.

It's not just Budgies, African greys cost a fortune. :o

I'm sure the Yokomo Super Dog Fighter 870C was about £200 in the late 80's, so I think they've probably come down in price.

You can get some real bargains 2nd hand that have barely been used.

In 1989 I paid, Schumacher Top Cat 2wd cost 74.99. A Pro-Cat 4wd cost 174.99 I think they have gone up a little......

Ahhh BUT......

back then 2wd meetings were like 95% Top Cats/ Cougars. Racing in Essex back then there were 2 RC10s and a single JRX. Why? Because the Cougar was £90, the American cars £180+.
That compares well to the Durango vs Kyosho prces today.

So like I said, they have gone up a little. Top-Cat 74.99 in 1989. 2014 kf 235 and maybe the KF will hit 300 in 2015. So I think thats gone up a little.:D

a little
 

well to put in my 2p ns worth ... like others have said on this thread its definitely cheaper now.... at least based on a like for like basis......

... based on the 90's prices..
Schumacher's top of line buggy 4wd:

:thumbsup:Schumacher cat2000 ( i think i bought it mid 90's ish, was when ever it first came out, Seymore models in Harrow ) £279.00

:thumbsup:Cat aero ( best kit price i could find now on a quick look ) £294.00

so very little difference from what i can see..... and thats not taking into consideration 20yrs of inflation ....cant do the sums on that but id bet comparatively it makes things cheaper even more so...........also the aero has Carbon fibre everywhere... so your getting more for your money! :woot:

ah
 

having said that ....perhaps i over payed on the cat2000! :woot:

you could in the 90's choose your spec of car schumacher did the carbon fibre or the s1 associated did three levels rtr ,team and factory team yokomo had the full works dog fighter or the plastic chassis buggy team c even managed it with the super cheap buggy or the better spec racing buggy the number of manufacturers may have gone up but they are either aimed at novices or pro drivers i am at best average i am faced with buying a top spec buggy probably going to have to buy some shorty batteries as saddle packs are out of favour my stick packs are so last week and with the price limit seemingly removed on the motors its a hobby for deep pockets

It seems to me you just want a moan. Fair enough it's your prerogative but you are not listening to the replies. The hobby is not more expensive, it is cheaper. Most makers have cheap and pro versions of their buggies, Yeah, shorties are flavour de jour but you can still use saddles and sticks in many cars a Durango 210 can use all 3 and is probably the cheapest route to a competitive mid range race car.