Should I buy the D80 with one of the "in box" lenses or but the body an the 18-200mm VR AF lens?

Hi, Chris.
Both the 18-135mm and the 18-200mm lenses are excellent, I would say that the D80 and the D200 have the best digital lenses offered in box kits. Both lenses have an extremely quick and a very quiet auto focus motor, they also have a great balance between wide to telephoto.

Here are a few options:
1) If money is not an issue, then get the 18-200mm

2) For most photo shooting situations the 18-135mm(27-200mm 35mm equivalent) is generally all that photographers really need.
At full extended zoom its just long enough zoom ratio to maintain razor sharp images with out sacrificing to much depth of field. Its also a long enough zoom to get lens compression for portraits or general sports coverage and just wide enough for general interior shots with very minmal distortion. So save yourself the money.

3) Now at this point with the money you have just saved if you buy the 18-135mm, you can determine what specific needs you require for your second lens. If you do any type of interior photography where a wider lens than 18mm is required, then get an inexpensive short wide angle Nikkor zoom lens. A lens wider than 18mm, but not necessarily longer than 35mm-50mm, OR the other option is if you need a longer zoom lens then 135mm for wildlife, sports, and etc, then your second lens should be at least 300mm on the long side, but not necessarily much shorter than 80mm on the bottom end, so that you can keep the cost down.

I bought a nikkor 80-300mm digital lens recently for $125 dollars, I got it cheap because it was classified as imported, meaning that it was imported by a third party with out a warranty. Of all the lenses I have bought over the past 30 years, I have never had a lens that malfunctioned, so I took the chance and lens works great. Now I have an 18-135mm(27-200mm 35mm equivalent) and a 80-300m(120-450mm 35mm equivalent) for less than the cost of the 18-200mm. I am sure I can add a nice wide angle lens and still keep the total cost of all three nikkor lenses for around the same price as 18-200mm.

The Bottom Line:
If you need lenses for specialized shooting situations, then you will need to break open your wallet and pay what it costs.
If you get the 18-135mm zoom lens, you should be able to include a second and maybe a third lens for around the same price as the 18-200mm.
If you don't buy a digital lens longer than 135mm(200mm 35mm equivalent), don't sweat it.
The beauty of the 10 MP with the D80 is that you can crop your images and enlarge a portion of the frame with still maintaining a great image quality, especially with raw image files, there is tons of packed data information. If you used only around 50% of the frame by cropping your image closer to give you a simulation of a longer zoom ratio, you would still have no problem making nice clear wall prints at around 24"x36" or better. The D80 renders the pixels like continuous film tone, so you have mega back up pixels to work with.

I hope this info has been helpful in your decision of lenses.

Happy Shopping!
Piero Foto