..and the beat goes on
This isn't exactly what I was looking for but it was a nice find..
I was in my local Guitar Center with a buddy looking for a decent low-priced acoustic to get him started. They had a few different models on display - one was the Yamaha F335 for $159.99 (no case). This thing had great action right out of the box (I'm assuming no one in the store tweaked the neck).
It's a full dreadnought (acoustic only) with a laminate spruce top but the back and sides are Meranti - a cheaper material not so good for sound quality, from what I've read. But hell.. it played great and, to me, sounded real good with the factory strings.