Honestly, It’s barely an upgrade from the Mongoose. A coworker has one, and crashed on his first "real" mountainbike ride with me. Plastic bits and pieces went flying everywhere, and he ended up with huge gashes in his legs. The shifter broke apart and the sharp plastic cut him up pretty bad.
I’ve wrecked my Trek many times, and have yet to have any plastic shards imbed themselves into my body.
Looking at it compare to his bike, I notice there isn’t much plastic at all. My shifters would get bent possible, but wouldn’t break. My break levers, shifters, etc. have met many trees with force, but still work perfectly, and obviously haven’t ever broke apart like that.
I rode a Mongoose for a long time before getting the Trek. I rode it slowly and cautiously though since I recognized what I was riding, and wanted it to last at least until I got a higher end bike.
My old target Pacific bike however, has seen lots of trail duty, and still does to this day as my loaner bike.
We’re taking it down to the Brown County Breakdown next weekend for my wife to putt around on.
It is over 15 years old though, from when department store bikes were built much better. It’s heavy, but tough.
Bottom line. I’m not too impressed with the Diamondbacks they sell at Dicks sporting goods, etc.
I’d hit up Craigslist and Ebay for a used Trek, Giant, Cannondale, etc… You can something pretty decent for your price range.