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RC cars are incredibly fascinating not only for kids but also for adults. This is especially true if you buy an RC car that is not only a good price but also has tons of great features. Remote controlled cars are not just fascinating to use but also allow you to spend some great time together with friends or family while enjoying the outdoors.
One word of caution, the rest of this article isn’t going to be your normal fluff piece of listing four random models and giving some of their specs! I will go into what exactly you should know about Aliexpress before you ever consider buying your next RC car on there.
One huge issue with RC cars and the RC hobby in general is that these devices can often be incredibly expensive. Some of the top of the line drones can sell for thousands of dollars while the best RC cars can go for similar prices as well!
Obviously that is far from an affordable price for many people which is where Aliexpress comes in! This website allows you to buy direct from China and although the shipping times are often quite long you can save a ton of money by purchasing your RC cars on that site.
There are a bunch of great RC cars that you can find on Aliexpress but the easiest way to find the best one is to simply type your keywords into the search bar and then sort by the number of orders. If you do that it will show you the RC cars that have sold the most which means they are likely the best options.
Since most of the RC car models on Aliexpress are normally generic and not name brands, using the method mentioned above will help you find the best selling models currently.
You can also try some variations of your keywords in the search bar as that will often help you get a bunch of different results so you could type in:
- RC car
- RC truck
- RC 4WD
- RC crawler
- Etc.
And each of those phrases will give you some different models that you can look at and choose from. To see how RC cars on Aliexpress stack up against the name brand models you can check out the video below.
When purchasing an RC vehicle from Aliexpress there are a few different things that you should watch out for and know before ever purchasing. We will cover some of those things below.
Shipping takes FOREVER!
Ok, so forever might be a slight exaggeration but not much. I have purchased a good variety of items from Aliexpress from many different sellers and the average time for it to arrive in the United States is 1-2 months! That is certainly a far cry from the 1-2 day shipping that many of us are accustomed to getting with Amazon so this is something that you have to take into account.
Shipping times can be less if you pay extra for the more expensive air shipping options but if you just go with the free shipping it will take a long time to arrive.
I recently ordered some toys for my kids on Aliexpress and the items came in over the course of 3 weeks with the last items arriving a full two months after the purchase was made. This is a huge downside when buying from Aliexpress but for me the cost savings is well worth it.
Customer service is lacking
No matter if you are buying an RC car or anything else on the site (and boy do they have almost everything) you will quickly realize that there is virtually no customer service. Now that doesn’t mean that you will get scammed as if you never get the item they are very good about getting you a refund but normally they will give the sellers a month or two for the shipping process so if you need something in the meantime getting help is quite difficult.
I have also had some issues in the past with sellers not ever shipping the item and not being able to do anything about it until the shipping window expired in a few weeks. I was able to get my money back with no hassle but there was some time that was lost and it was pretty annoying.
Prices are amazing
Not everything is bad when purchasing on Aliexpress and cheap prices are the main reason people buy from there (myself included). You can often find deals on clothes, toys, etc. and pick them up for 50-70% less than a comparable generic item sells at Walmart or Amazon for.
These price savings is what keeps people coming back and makes it worthwhile to deal with the hassle of poor customer service and slow shipping times. Aliexpress is amazing to purchase items for birthdays, Christmas, etc. because you know exactly when they are. You just have to plan a few months in advance and you can seriously stretch your budget a long way when buying on their site!
Items can arrive damaged
Just as with items that you purchase in the United States sometimes you will get an item that is damaged. Aliexpress is super good about simply refunding you or paying for the return shipping but after waiting multiple months for an item to arrive and having it arrive broken it can be quite disappointing.
I recently purchased a mini drone from Aliexpress and when it arrived one of the propellers wouldn’t work. I contacted them and they issued me a full refund but then I had to purchase another item and wait another month to get it!
This is another con of the site as any replacements take a long time to arrive as well.
Most sellers are super careful to wrap their items in a lot of foam, styrofoam, etc. but some sellers don’t do that and that is when problems can arise. You can check out the reviews of individual sellers but since they sell to people all over the globe not all reviews will be in english so that can make it more difficult to figure out whether the seller or item is good or not.
A wide variety
Since you are purchasing items either directly from the factory or close to it your options will be much more broad then when buying from a local store. When I just typed in “RC car” in the search bar on Aliexpress it just returned almost 70,000 different products for sale!!!
Talk about choices!
You can easily narrow the search by pricing, free shipping, or sort by number of orders (what I always do) but no matter which way you look at it there are tons of options for any item that you want to buy!
Just be warned, once you start buying your RC cars on Aliexpress you will quickly find yourself buying jewelry, clothes, toys, and tons of other stuff on there as well because they really do have it all!
Conclusion
I hope now you know a little more about buying your next RC car on Aliexpress and how you can find the best models that are currently available. I know this wasn’t your normal article and if you were coming to this article trying to find a list of the best RC cars on Aliexpress then I apologize.
Truly the best way to find your new RC car is to go to Aliexpress, type in the specific type of RC car that you are looking to buy and then sort by the number of orders. If you buy an item that has had hundreds or thousands of orders with good reviews then you will likely be happy with what you get.