For the guy who already has a boatload of tools.

Are there any bicycle specific toolkits that forgo the formality of including basic things like screwdrivers and allen wrenches? I have worked on cars and motorcycles for the past 10+ years and have accumulated a lot of great tools, but the more I ride (especially my older steel frame bike), the more I find myself wanting to service the bottom bracket, replace the headset, etc.

So is there some sort of intermediate kit that would fit that description? Or would it be just as much to buy the specific tools as I would need them? Part of my brain avoids doing more important jobs because I'd have to buy the tools at the same time (higher cost in my brain). If I could just get myself to buy the tools all at once, I could just do what needs to be done when it needs to be done.

Suggest buying tools as needed kits are OK but several tools you may never use in them.
Collect what you need for your bikes. Pick them up on sale in no time you will have what you need at a very good price.

just buy them individually. if you are not wrenching professionally on bikes you wont need everything in the kit unless you have a wide variety of bikes.

Agree with the others, buy the tools you need when you need them. A kit will include tools you'll never need.

Even the Park kits aren't that great. Buy them as you need them.

Discussed many times, tool kits are a waste of money. Who needs a Park tool screwdriver?

I went with a lot of peoples's suggestions to buy-as-I-went. I have a lot of nice tools now, but I also think I may have saved money in the long run with a kit. I found that it ended up being a self-fulfilling prophecy: Every time I discovered some new moving part to dismantle/fix, I ended up going and buying a new tool just for that tiny project. I also ended up upgrading several tools for which I originally bought a crappy version and then needed to upgrade. When I consider how much I spent on individual (but nice) bike tools, and then look at some of the more comprehensive kits on sale, I think I may have saved a fair chunk of change going with a kit to begin with.

Also, the whole notion you'll buy tools one-at-a-time on sale or at great prices when you need them presupposes a lot of perfect timing: I've found when I actually need a tool I don't have, getting it on sale becomes a several-week process, and I often just end up paying the premium price to have the tool at the time I want it. OR, I end up talking myself into buying a tool I don't really need just because it's on sale. Either way, though, it's kind of defeating that part of the purpose of "buying as I go."

Since you work on cars, you may not need a lot of the tools in a bike-specific kit. There are some kits, I believe, that are smaller but have some of the very essential and bike-specific things in them. Also since you work on cars, it sounds like you'll probably eventually want to work on all parts of the bike yourself. I'd say it depends on how much you really want to work on your bike/bikes in the future. If you're fine just doing the necessary stuff, then perhaps the conventional wisdom as stated by others will serve you fine.

Of course, YMMV.