The good old days of late summer 2009.

It was a great time to buy a new car. Monthly new car sales in North America had plummeted to under 10 million units. Access to financing seemed to be near impossible for a lot of consumers. Brands were orphaned. Leasing collapsed. Banks were picky. The future was uncertain and… raw materials were cheap.

It was a good time to buy new at a deep, deep discount. Has that time passed?

The folks at Toyota have been complaining about the low euro and the strong yen long enough. Now, they are putting the low Euro to work. Starting in May 2013, Toyota will ship its Toyota Yaris from Toyota’s Onnaing-Valenciennes plant in France to the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

TTACers have known it for quite some while: Europeans won’t get a Prius C / Aqua compact hybrid, they will get a hybrid Yaris. Today, the first one rolled off the line at Toyota’s plant in Valenciennes, in the north of France.