Cheap, fast, reliable; pick any two...
I'd say if you are after a truck, then either the Savage Flu or Traxxas Erevo- very different animals ( basher & jumper vs racer & speed machine respectively, pretty much ). You may want to consider a 1/8 scale truggy though as they are very robust and handle much better, but not so much for large jumps probably.
I would indeed start out with lipo though, nimhs are old tech and wont allow you to get the full potential of the vehicle otherwise. I'd avoid cheap rtr r/c trucks though, they tend to be little better than toy-grade and hard to upgrade/ find spares for.
Depends what sort of money you were looking to spend ( truck, lipos, charger, radio system if needed, esc and motor if starting out with a roller truggy + conversion kit ), how fast you wanted to go and what sort of driving/ terrain you were planning on. Give us a little more info and insight into your wants and needs, we'll have plenty of suggestions
