May 1 (Bloomberg) -- Chrysler LLC, seeking to sell what the automaker considers its best assets to a new company controlled by Fiat SpA, plans to leave eight factories in bankruptcy court.

Those include a sedan plant in Sterling Heights, Michigan, a St. Louis-area pickup-truck factory and one in Detroit that makes the Dodge Viper sports car, as well as closed facilities in St. Louis and Newark, Delaware, according to court filings. The others are a metal stamping operation in Twinsburg, Ohio, an engine factory in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and a Detroit axle plant.

The automaker and the U.S. government plan to use a surgical bankruptcy to sell Chrysler’s best assets, such as its Dodge Ram pickup, to the new company with streamlined costs and debt, which would team up with Fiat. Chrysler, based in Auburn Hills, Michigan, filed for court protection yesterday.

“While some facilities may eventually close, none other than Newark and St. Louis South are scheduled for closure in the near term,” Max Gates, a Chrysler spokesman, said in an e-mailed statement today. “Virtually all of the labor associated with these facilities will be offered employment with the new company.”

The Fiat alliance will create or preserve more than 5,000 manufacturing jobs, Chrysler said in a statement.

All union-represented workers still have the option of taking a buyout or early retirement incentive of as much as $75,000 and a $25,000 car voucher under a previously announced plan that expires May 26, Gates said.

The Sterling Heights plant is the only place Chrysler makes Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring sedans. The St. Louis-area factory slated to be left in bankruptcy is one of two for Dodge Ram pickups.

The plants and other smaller assets that won’t be sold to the new company have an estimated value of $2.3 billion, Chrysler said in its filing.

The case is: In re Chrysler LLC, 09-50002, U.S. Bankruptcy Court, Southern District of New York (Manhattan).

To contact the reporter on this story: Mike Ramsey in Southfield, Michigan, at mramsey6@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 1, 2009 16:19 EDT