RE: Which Dealerships Offer The Best Deals on '09's?
Local dealerships? Nope.
Most are, like you said, refusing to commit or even order cars yet because Chrysler hasn't released pricing for them.
I went out of state for mine. With Bob Frederick (from RedLetterDodge.com). Guaranteed MSRP (whatever that may be when pricing is released) and those of us who went with Bob had our cars ordered in the system literally within minutes of the order system being opened (no exaggeration). Bob is your best bet for MSRP + amazing service. I've never received better service from a dealer nor felt more confident about my order and the dealership than dealing with Bob.
In fact, I had $1000 deposits at two different dealerships for an '08 SRT8. I had originally only put in my '09 order with Bob as a "back up" in case my '08s fell through. Due to 'lackluster' communication from the dealers that was short of refusing to return my phone calls I pulled both deposits yesterday afternoon after speaking with Bob only once on the phone and I'm now sitting on an '09 SRT8 order through Bob - confident I will get my car. Bob instilled that much confidence and trust within me that the next day I pulled those deposits, I didn't even care if I would've gotten an '08 -- the service from Bob was the best I've seen. So now I get to save money (they wanted minimum $5k over MSRP on my '08) and get a manual transmission and get a true limited slip differential. Sure I have to wait more, but I have peace of mind now versus feeling I have to check up on my local dealers and pester them to make sure things are on track.
I've about lost all confidence and trust in my local dealerships for some of the precise reasons that you've demonstrated in your post with your own local dealers.