????
You are driving across the USA not a 3rd world country. Worst case you rent a U haul truck and trailer to get home. Or, have someone back home ship it to you if the trans fails.

Why does the 114 K mile story sound fishy? Cars get wrecked all the time. Why not hook up a regular battery to test the mileage?

Transmissions never fail in winter ?????? Where did that come from??

Water borne paint has been around for 20 years and isn't going away. Also modern ( post 1930's ) car paint was never oil based., it is solvent based. GM didn't have good luck with this early on and paint tended to come off, but that was in the 90's and does not seem to be a current problem.