My 60GB (3 years old, now) recently failed on me due to overheating (stupidly, I had it on top of my DISH DVR unit). Sony charged me $150, I removed my HDD before sending it in (320GB), and in return I received a brand new 60GB unit with a HDD included. I noticed that the new HDD was a different brand than the one that originally came with the 60GB, so I'm hoping the Blu Ray Laser issue was resolved later on in their production as well?
Also, my friend's 60GB unit (~2.5 years old) just has its Blu Ray laser go belly-up a few months ago.
All-in-all, I am still pretty pissed that my $600 console shit out on me, especially because it sounds like the 40GB and 80GB SKU's rarely ever fail (in other words, the early adopter once again gets screwed); and it's even more aggravating b/c the replacement unit only has a 90 day warranty. However, considering the thousands of hours I've spend gaming on Sony consoles, I've never had one fail on me (I still own the original fat PS2), so I suppose I was about due. Regardless, I hope this one lasts at least until the price of a new one is under $300, because I'm now thinking that maybe it wasn't so important to snag the 60GB just to have 100% backwards compatibility (I don't even have enough time to enjoy all my PS3 games, let alone go back and play PS2 titles).
Oh, and BTW: the whole return process took less than 2 full weeks (3 days for the pre-paid coffin to arrive, 3 days to ship it to Sony, one day for them to replace it, and 3 days for it to be shipped back). Most productive 2 weeks I've had in years. LOL.