There are several questions that most beginners will have, that are somewhat 
difficult to answer. This is usually the first one! In order to give any kind of a 
meaningful answer, several things must be known first. These include, but are not 
limited to:
 - how much money do you have / want to spend?
 - where do you mostly intend to drive this car (street / off-road)?
 - do you intend to race in sponsored races?
 - do you want to build your car or not (kit / RTR)?
 - do you want a car to 'learn on and graduate from', or a car that you will 'grow 
into'?
There are numerous answers to each of these points, and, therefore, there are 
numerous answers to this question.

Still, in an attempt to give some sort of an answer, I can offer a personal 
experience: the car that I myself bought first and some of the reasons for my 
decision. Personally, I did not want to spend a lot of money, but I normally do try 
to balance quality and quantity. I knew that I was mostly going to race my car in 
my parking lot, which is quite beaten up, but I also wanted to enter into some of 
the local races, most of which were clean parking lot races. I wanted something 
that is going to be fairly easy to maintain and build, and also get spare parts 
for. Initially I was considering the HPI RS4 Pro2. But I thought this kit is 
somewhat expensive as it needed a lot of additional stuff; also this car would have 
problems with clearance on my broken up parking lot. I eventually ended up with the 
HPI RS4 Rally. I had every intention of learning on this car, and then moving up to 
something 'hot'. Eventually my interests changed though, and now I drive mostly 
off-road cars. Looking back on it now, I still feel this was a good decision on my 
part. The Pro2 would have been a bad purchase for me. I have to stress the "for me" 
part in that last sentence; I know a whole bunch of people who own the Pro2 and are 
very happy with it.

If you are still unsure, which you probably are, then read the rest of this 
document, read some magazines, get informed. Here are several places that you want 
to check:
 - Past posts to rmrl 
<rec.models.rc.land&as_usubject=review">http://groups.google.com/groups?as_ugroup=rec.models.rc.land&as_usubject=review>.
 - Post a message yourself to the group, get the opinions of several people. With 
your inquiry, try to be as specific as possible with what you want.
 - Go to your local hobby store (LHS) and a local track (find one from your LHS), 
and talk to people there. See if someone will let you drive their car (they 
probably will not, but you can still ask).
 - Check the "Radio Control Car Action" magazine <http://www.rccaraction.com/>; 
check for back issues at your local library or from your friends online.