I went used bike hunting at a branch of my LBS I hadn't been to before.
They have a bright orange (AWESOME COLOR!) Trek 1000. It's an '06 that a guy bought right before xmas. It has about 50 miles on it. I can't even tell that it's been ridden except for a little bit of road grime on the tight spaces of the brake caliper. He sold it back to them a few weeks ago, a road bike wasn't his style. What's awesome:
1) If I get it, he'll give my their typical "new bike" lifetime warranty. Absolutely free labor, tune-ups, etc for the life of the bike, and pay for parts only on repairs. They'll even patch a flat for free (but why?)
2) When I said that his asking price was "almost what I want for my car" he perked up. I didn't tell him I was looking to trade, but he asked me if I'd bring the car up to look at it. He'd trade me straight up if he likes my car. He's actually a licensed car dealer and has done a lot of work on cars prior to getting into the bike biz. He's the general manager of this particular store; his father owns the whole business (3 locally-owned stores)
So it looks like a bike shop manager is interested in trading with me! His asking price for the 1000 is $525 which sounds like a good deal since I basically get a new bike in my size (52cm) with all the new bike perks. Talking to the manager at the other branch that I usually go to, though, it sounds like for $700 or so, I could have a brand new Trek 1200 (same bike, better components) from him.
50 miles though, not too bad. There's an '06 Cake 3 at my usual LBS that probably has 200 test ride miles on it. If I can sell the car for cash and sell some other crap on Craigslist, I'll probably go for the new 1200.
The quest continues!