I had a savage XS once, it was one of the worst trucks I have has by a mile.
This was about 10 years ago, I had the XS SS, the builders kit with the upgrade parts, I would hope some of these issues would have been sorted by now, has anyone built one recently can maybe confirm?
The shocks were decent (alloy, threaded bodied) but that was about it. The two sides of the chassis didnt marry up correctly, there was actually an error on the molding so one of the screw holes was about 3mm out. The truck was very chunky and heavy, it was heavier than a lot of my 1/10th trucks but shorter and narrower. Due to the weight it needed 3s to get it moving but this made it very unstable.
The suspension arms are very short so it was poor over rough ground and grip rolled a lot, it took a lot of work to get rid of the slop too, the hinge pins were 3mm and the holes on the wishbone were 3.2mm! they all needed shimming to stop the back and forth movement too.
The diff cups were oversized and needed sanding down to get the bearings over them
The list went on and on, I found my old build thread! omg 12 years ago now:
All my bits arrived just in time for the long weekend, lucky me theres an orange theme going on here.
www.msuk-forum.co.uk
Even with all these build problems the main thing was it broke at an alarming rate, not due to crashes, but due to the wear on the drivetrain, the dog bones and drivecups were very lightweight, like 1/10th buggy thin, they would grund the cups down and snap the pins very quickly. This was purely down to the weight of the truck and the 3s power. On 2s it would probably be ok, but it would be my last choice for a small 3s truck, there are many better options.
www.associatedelectrics.com
youtu.be
I've run Associated for years and fancied changing to another manufacturer. 
