why have buggies got so expensive?
 

been running a second hand cougar sv2 for a while thought i would buy a new shiney buggy what happened to the mid range buggies the only sub £200 buggy is a losi and ive fallen out with horizon that is off my shopping list i can buy a £50 team c basher or a £250+ top line racer is it just me or have the prices gone through the roof since the demise of ansmann

Well there is the Durango dex210 but probably better sticking with sv2 still a good car and still making them

Maybe ansmann being so cheap was the reason for them not being in business now?

There are "cheap" buggies about, hobao, durangos, older losi's, etc. Generally with the cheap stuff, you need to spend way more in excess of the kit price in upgrades to make them durable and competitive however.

It's not just kit price that you need to look at, but factor in price and availability of parts.

£200-£250 seems about the normal price for a racers spec kit, with the quality Japanese end being more expensive.

With new buggies coming and people refreshing their rides for the new season, there are plenty of decently priced second hand buggies about at competitive prices, often well looked after and maintained, with loads of spares, etc.

Paul, Alex will sell you a firebolt for £199 or a B5M for £215 according to his website


(link below in sig, save you searching on google)

maybe yokomo bmax2 will come down in price soon?tamiya do some cheap 2wd buggies.i'll try anything cheap.not really fussed about brands.what you need is to find someone who has a load of boxed buggies in their loft doing nothing and make them an offer on one.there must me someone.......

I agree, it seems like buggies have become more expensive. I would say it's down to the explosion of brands that have joined the class. Ok, it seems the class may have become more popular too, but currently every brand has to work actively on new developments to stay in the game, not to mention that they are fighting for what is probably a smaller market share than a few years ago - at least for the big brands like Associated.

firebolts seem to be very fragile durango are under administration the sv2 is still current just its ready to be upgraded or dropped yokomo's are £300 +kyosho even more tamiya dont make a competative 2wd any more ae used to do team and factory team models not any more looks like i stick with what i have or start doing the lottery

you don't need a factoryteam/team version of any car paul.any car can be reasonably competitive given a decent set up.take me for example,for years I always had the newest, fastest most expensive kit going and I still couldn't drive for toffee.after a five year break I come back with a 1st version 210 in 540 class,it hasn' t been the fastest car but it handles everything really well.my 4wd car is a b44.1 in blinky class and that's going ok.my yokomo is a v1,and that's ok.none of these cost over £160 and as yet I havn't blinged any up.i even use mtronics speedos in all my 540 cars.

a bit off topic but is Durango in administration?

Cougar KF's
 

Loads of these on Oople trade room in good nick good prices top buggy. Get one of these but make sure it has shorty conversion included unless you are running indoor on astro all the time.

No. Durango is not in administration.

I really wish people would check their facts before posting.

Don't believe all you read on the internet!

"Keenbutreallybadlyinformedandjustmakingstuffu p"?

Think that sums it up.

And it may well be that it's actually quite hard to make a competitive buggy, cheaply, make some profit and stay in business. Especially with the huge number of new buggies going into a similar sized marketplace. Got to make a profit somehow. Or are you expecting them to give buggies away?

And FWIW the cost of a competitive buggy, compared to 20 odd years ago hasn't really increased that much, certainly well behind inflation. 2WD or 4WD.

I agree cars have not gone up with inflation and are not far of the price of a buggy 20 years ago. But why is the new yokomo yz2 just over £100 more than a B5 but yet very similar in design. Not the way it might go on track but production wise.

Totally agree. :thumbsup:

Don't quote me on it, but I seem to recall that when the B5M came out, the first call was from people saying "when will a factory team version be out so we don't have to buy all the alloy bits separate", while the YZ-2 seems to come with all the alloy bling included?

I don't have either car so can't say for certain, but that is the impression I have

Cheaper
 

I would say there cheaper than 20 yrs ago! 20 yrs ago I spent £280 ( hard earned pocket money. ! ) on my cat2000 when it came out and that was with 0 carbon fibre on it... Now you can pick up a full carbon fibre b44.3 for £300 so given inflation etc it's cheaper for what you get!

Problem solved - £189.99

http://insidelineracing.co.uk/images...o-kev-lee5.jpg

Team C TC02C Evo - link below

http://insidelineracing.co.uk/inside...-motor-buggy-p

Yep I think you're right what a bargain!

I agree with some of the above, what we now expect from a modern high end competition buggy takes quite a bit ofR&D etc etc and as has been said they have not gone up to much compared to many other day to day things over the past 20 years, but the thing is how much are we the club racer prepared to pay for our cars, I have drawn the line in 4wd I would love a Kyosho ZX6 but I just can't warrant that sort of cost on a buggy! I think in the end thats going to be the question/problem for manufacturers is, what we want, what it costs to create and what we can all as a worldwide hobby afford per car?

75% cheaper than they were in 1990!

I seem to remember a Predator was around the £375 range back in '95/96, so it looks like they don't cost anymore at all now.

losi 22.2 £190 yokomo £300 cougar kr £190 k1 £280 is the engineering so cheap in america that they can beat the japanese by 30% is the k1 30%dearer to produce than a kr or are they priced at what they think they can get if i remember rightly the predator was carbon fibre tub and all sorts of fancy bits now carbon fibre and graphite have given way to flat plates with a few plasic bits bolted to them all the expensive materials seem to have gone replaced by plastic

Is not plastic.
Most of the "plastics" on current cars is filled with glass or carbon fibre. Around 30-40%

Its an industry standard.

And you are aware of things like tax, wages, materials, rent all being wildly different across the globe?

When I got my b5m it came with a load of other little bits for changing the setup that id most likely never use. These parts would have needed to be designed, have different moulds made and the material used, theses things cost money and add to the end cost. When you think that they are selling these at £175 in the USA without vat and import costs then then I think that you get a lot for your money. You do get more value for money with a 4wd but the running cost are higher.

dont know why you guys are wasting your breath, this guys a stubborn and deluded one,

end of the day, horizon dont built this 22, tlr do, so give them the funds, not horizon, or your lhs that actually buys and sells the car? The durangos are great and mb models do all the spares. Hobao h2 pro is like under £150 isn't it and apparently works like a 22 and you can fit 22 parts to it.

but hey, all you guys have said this and hes got an answer to everything....

TBH I think you get what you pay for, I started 2WD with a DEX210 which I was perfectly happy with for the money but the quality of parts wasn't the best IMO.

Cheap bearings with the rubber shields pushed in unevenly which restricted their rotation and slipper plates whose anodizing wore off after about 6 meetings and trashed the pads were two of the things which made me change to a Kyosho RB6 and enjoy the Japanese build quality.

On a side note I don't know what's wrong with people in this country, in other English speaking countries people take pride in learning to communicate effectively but all three of the posts by the OP have made my eyes hurt due to the lack of grammar and punctuation.

Call me a Victorian posho all you like but if you're capable of talking about percentages you're capable of learning your own language. keenbutboneidle

The new Yokomo is fairly hopped up straight out the box. If its anything like their other recent releases it will work out the box and not require any money spending on it.

on the bmax 4 ive literally only put alloy shock tops on and have only broke a shock shaft and A arm in 6 month racing twice a week!

Kyosho don't make a competitive 2wd?? The RB6 is the current World champion 2wd car!!!!

maybe you are missing some important news?

neil,i think what he means is that kyosho are more than 300 [yokomo] and that Tamiya don't make a competitive buggy.at the end of the day there is a good choice of buggies out there with budgets for everyone.the most expensive aren't always the best,and the cheaper ones aren't always the worst.

And on that note, HOTSHOTIII rests his case. :thumbsup:

I can sell you a cheap car :) one meeting old - like new :thumbsup:

nah, just paragraphs, punctuation and grammar.

I rest my case. Complete waste of anyone's breath

i think the point that was made about there being different cars out there of varying costs to suit different budgets its a good one. I feel some of the upgrades or parts for certain cars are a little crazy sometimes but it doesn't seem to put people off so what do I know lol.

Humm, maybe this thread is not going to plan.... best buy ones these rather than a new car

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/i...cJ4OvgWyuB7pDg

so you can dig yourself out.....

the sv2 is on its way a new buggy is being hunted the choices are losi but after a £1000 bill for aircraft repairs with a spektrum transmitter horizon products are out that leaves the rapid but fragile firebolt or the unpopular b5 in the sub £250 and in the middle the schumacher k1 the £300 plus bracket kyosho rb6 yokomo bmaxx and yz2 spares wise the associated and schumacher seem to be the best supported and my driving may make that an important factor
its getting close to the point that the car in the boot is more expensive than the boot it is in

what about rc10 worlds re-release?they can compete at top club level,are fun to drive[sometimes sideways]and you always get a crowd of admirers.i alove mine and will never sell it.around £200 ish and spares are plentiful.you can run any lipo in,no problems squeezing radio gear in.do it,you wont regret it.

tlr are owned by horizon hobbies like team associated is owned by thunder tiger if my punctuation makes this hard for you i apologise some models are distributed like ansmmann didn't manufacture they distributed team c, yokomo, and team associated are distributed by cml ripmax and perkins are distributers they market other peoples models with their own name habao are no longer listed on the cml website so spares could now be a problem i know this can be a issue as i drive a 4wd ansmann pro and spares have dissapeared completely as have team c alternatives which is why buying the right chassis is important i don't want to spend silly money on a here today gone tomorrow chassis ,

I have loads of spares for the x4 team edition should you ever need.why don't you spend a few quid having your car set up properly?all my cars are built and prepared by peter moss and they are fantastic.worth evey penny!you don't need a £300 car.spend £200 and the rest on build and you will never look back.

Very very true, despite the build quality issues I was more than happy with the actual performance of the DEX210.

It's surprising how many people don't follow basic rules like making sure all the suspension components fall under their own weight and regularly replacing shock seals. Also you can make the shock action better than on a brand new car by polishing the shock rods with Autosol, this makes the shock action silky smooth even on my 15 year old Schuey Fireblade.

I clean and re-lube my CVDs every week and people often comment that my cars are noticeably quieter than other people's (and they last longer, and CVD backlash makes even the most expensive car horrible to drive).

Also it's worth finding a good local fastener supplier (not Screwfix, hunt around the industrial estates for one that supplies local industry) and spending some money on fasteners, this makes the car more approachable to work on and you'll be more inclined to try different setups between rounds. I can't abide seeing a car less than 6 months old with a load of chewed up screw heads.