I have to tell you, the 5T makes me giddy like a little girl. Every time I hit the gas, I get all silly inside. I always finish my runs with a huge smile.
The 5T is incredibly durable. As we all know, a simple random occurrence can break any truck. I actually stripped out my Savage steering servo on a low speed turn while breaking it in. Anything can happen, but the 5T is very, very durable.
I've been taking it out on a huge soccer field down the street. I've been jumping 10' berms and then turning around and coming off of them at full throttle. I've flipped it 100's of times like some of those nasty Nascar death rolls you see on TV.
The only issues I've had is a C-Clip pop lose during a poorly planned berm to berm jump, causing the wheel to pop off, and the piece of plastic the body mounts to snapped in half. The total bill for that fix was about $10.
There are some other benefits as well. The motor started right out of the box, and continues to start easily every time I run it. I have no tuning issues, motor drama or slime. I don't have to carry a roto-start or ignitor with me. I can get up to 45 min on a tank of fuel and about 5 tanks in a $2 gallon of gasoline. So that's nearly 4 hours of run time on $2.
As far as power goes, it feels more powerful than my Savage, and is at least as fast. There are also many upgrades available over at DDM, but they are painfully expensive. I expect to drop more than $2K in hop ups into it in the next month if I end up going with a motor upgrade.
I'll tell you guys a quick story. The first time I took it out after break-in was a pretty wet and sloppy day, as you can see from the pics. I had the 5T in front of me and I punched the throttle hard. Not ever having this problem with the Savvy, I was surprised to find myself covered in in mud and grass as the wheels tore away.
It's a great truck, but doesn't replace the Savvy. It is far more expensive, a bit louder and very expensive to upgrade. I think the consensus is that it's more durable, with a far more reliable plant, but the Savvy has a solid place in anyone's stable. I'm honestly not sure which one I'd keep if I had to get rid of one.