2006-2009 Prius owners, rejoice! You finally have a class-action lawsuit that you can get behind and it doesn't involve the name James Sikes. Toyota has finally been legally compelled to provide free warranty extensions and cash reimbursements for owners of 2006-2009 Prius models that suffer from premature failure of their HID headlights. This is an issue that has been posted on PriusChat since 2006, and up to this point Toyota has refused to offer any assistance other than giving "deals" on the repairs, knocking the price down from $300/bulb to $150.

Toyota Vice President Bob Carter told me back in March that Toyota hoped to sell 100,000 2010 Prius hybrids in 2009. Given the state of the economy, 100,000 units sold by the end of the year was a goal based more on hopes than reality. But with 139,682 total Prius sales in 2009, it looks like Toyota may have squeaked out 100,000 3G Prius sales, or at least they got very close.

2009 could be viewed as the year of the 2010. The 3rd Generation 2010 Prius, that is. Toyota kicked off the year with the reveal of the all-new 2010 Prius at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Myself and about 50 other PriusChatters were humbled to be hosted by Toyota at the Auto Show for a special hands-on with the 2010 Prius before anyone else.

Micheline Maynard has been keeping a pretty interesting "Prius Diary" over on the New York Times' Green Inc website.  The other day she posted a "video" (really more of a slideshow with audio) sharing her comparisons of the 2009 Prius to the 2010 Prius.  Nothing we all haven't heard or seen before, but worth the 2 1/2 minutes to watch it anyway.