Is the Savage what it's all hyped up to be?

[Finnster]

I have a nitro XL and I freaking love the truck. Tough, cheap, and easy to work on. I did replace the diffs as they are pretty weak even w/ nitros. The rest of the truck is solid.

You can always sell the 4.6 motor and get a better motor w/o breaking the back. I sold off the 5.9 that came with the XL and bought a LRP .28. Nice power (for a nitro) and easy to tune and start. $165 or so. It was my 1st nitro motor and I can run it well, so isn't that difficult. I even use a pullstart. I like the savage more than any other truck I've had (maxxes, revo, losi, tho never a MGT.)

Depending on what you want to spend, I would consider looking at the Sav XL as well. Its a freaking beast, and has some nicely upgraded parts. The longer wheelbase is nice too, and makes pipe manifolds easy. You can get these not too pricey if you look around.

I replaced my shocks w/ LST shocks. They are big and baddass. You don't have to do this, but its def nice.

[Takedown]

I had an HPI savage 21 and 25 and they were one of the worst trucks Ive owned. They both constantly broke. I kept the 21 nitro and converted the 25. I blew up my brand new 3spd tranny in the 25 while it was brushless and had many other driveline issues with the 21 even when it was in nitro form. I have never had a savage x though so i have no input on those. They seem to be a ton better than the 21 and 25.