I have owned kyosho, ofna (jammin), mugen, losi and have had the best luck with kyosho. its been the longest lasting and most durable and best driving for me but as bdebde said get whatever you can get parts for locally or unless you just want to order the parts all the time. I did see a losi 8 on ebay it is the rtr version of the buggy it has the rcmonster motor on it you could buy it and go from there
Well that didn't take quite as long as I planned... picked up a converted jammin x1-cr kit from pthunell this afternoon. Paid a little more than I wanted to, but doesn't that always happen?