It's actually quite a surprise when you expect Nikkor to have made sacrifices in order to produce a lens with such a broad range. The lens is a god's gift.
It's been incredibly popular since it came out a couple of years back and I've personally experienced why that is. It's a lens that will pretty much cover 75-95% of your lens needs in photography, depending on what you need, in one compact package. (Yes, at 18mm it's hardly larger than the 18-55 VR lens.)
The focal range is quite extreme. I know there's larger ranges on teles, but those start at a much higher focal depth (70mm, 200mm, 400mm), you can't use those for close-ups like this one.
It won't do extreme zooming with 200mm (300mm equivalent on 35mm) and it won't do extreme close-ups, but honestly, who needs that on a daily basis? You only would if you want to go beyond the extremes of this lens.
Pretty much any shot you have in mind, is possible with this lens. The closest it can focus is about 45cm, which is quite an accomplishment for a lens with such a long range.
The sharpness in full focus is amazing on my D40.
It has a decent bokeh, not the best but far from the worst.
There's some minor distortion throughout the focal range going on, but if needed, we all know how to fix that.
VR is very helpful. As Nikon says, it allows us to shoot 4 stops slower than without VR and still get a solid shot. And I can testify to that.
I expected a whole lot more defects with this lens, but it's been a huge surprise to me. It's a lens the way a lens should be. It gives you the flexibility you need in order to realize your vision without limiting you with defects or short ranges making you swap it with another lens.
I can personally recommend it to anyone with a DX camera looking for the next step after the starters' lenses, or wanting to make their collection of lenses obsolete with one professional multi-purpose lens.
What camera you got, Sam 2?
To demonstrate, here's 2 pics of my street at 18mm and at 200mm from the same perspective:
(Yes, in the 18mm shot I can't even spot the cars you see on the 200mm shot! It's that much.)