According to Road and Track's spyshots of the 2009 Prius, it is getting a mild redesign of the front only. Story available at yahoo and roadandtrack.com

http://autos.yahoo.com/articles/auto...9-toyota-prius
http://www.roadandtrack.com/article....rticle_id=6800

The outside appearance is pretty much the same IMO. Under the hood, the gas engine gets more horsepower. Because of improvements, it is not supposed to affect the mpg. I would have preferred the same horsepower and even more mpg. The Prius2 had plenty of pep when I used to rented them.