Arthur gets a perennial dose of Michigan-grade winter apiece holiday season, which is good for him. Extreme cold builds character, and Angelinos need more of it than they can get during semi-annual forays into their fur-storage freezers. By contrast, holiday visits to my far-flung family often involve travel southward out of Michigan. This year’s itinerary included a pre-Christmas stop at the in-laws’ in Tallahassee, Florida, and Christmas at my sister’s new place in the metropolis ‘burbs. Three-legged flights plus excess baggage or shipping fees were cost prohibitive, so we decided to make the journey in Dodge’s new crossover — a top-shelf Journey R/T AWD.

We’d planned to reach Atlanta on the first day starting out at 6 am, but with an epic blizzard bearing down on Motown we hastily threw our gear in the Dodge and set off at 10:30 pm the night before, holing up in Bowling Green, Ohio. The forecast for northern Ohio called for freezing rain, and indeed I had a good half-inch of cover to chip off in the morning, but with the sure-footed traction of all-wheel-drive, we easily managed at least 50 mph heading south on a well-salted I-75 as the Sirius/XM traffic and weather reports for Detroit struggled to describe all the wrecks and spin-outs in their four-minute time allotment.

By Cincinnati it was warm outside and I switched seats with my copilot, laying on a lunch spread and setting about playing with the extensive UConnect system (a $695 option). It was a snap to pair with my Bluetooth BlackBerry, for both handsfree phone use and streaming audio (if I had any on it). Our iPod connected to a cord in the glove box, providing cushy control through the touch-screen interface. I used the USB port on the front of the broadcasting to upload a gig’s worth of additional MP3s and a few photos to the MyGIG multimedia system (it holds 30 gigs and costs another $695). We even played some music directly off our Mac Powerbook using the analogue “aux” jack, while the 115-volt plug on the back of the center console kept our various electronics charged as we motored along. Sadly our Journey had not been outfitted with the slick new dealer-installed Mopar UConnect Web system, which turns the car into a wireless hotspot, or I’d have been patiently surfing the internet at cellular speeds as well. The 368-watt six-speaker Infinity sound system sounded like $495 well spent (ours was included in an $1195 rear-seat DVD entertainment package). Ford’s Sync system may do a few more tricks (like allowing voice dialing directly from the address book in your Bluetooth phone), but Chrysler’s UConnect is plenty capable and perhaps a bit more user-friendly. Our only real complaint with the whole system was with the low positioning of the control screen at the bottom of the center-stack.

While in Florida, six of us went down to Apalachicola–the oyster capital of the world–which gave us a chance to sample the third-row seat. Climbing in is easy, thanks to the one-lever system that leans the seatback forward and folds the seat cushion up as it slides, providing a nice wide entrance. Positioning the middle-row seats about halfway along their 4.7-inch travel left sufficient legroom for both rows, but the third-row cushion is so low that it’s hard for an adult to get comfortable back there, especially with overnight bags for six piled on the other folded seat. A few other surprise/delight features: the all-LED interior lighting works extremely well, particularly the reading lamps, which are highly directional, providing ample illumination with minimal glare for the driver. The stowage bins beneath the middle row floor and under the front passenger seat are great for keeping the detritus of an extended family road-trip contained. I also appreciated that the headlights come on automatically with the wipers.

Final trip stats: 2195 miles, 113.14 gallons of gas at $177.66 for an overall trip average of 19.4 mpg (note: the trip computer was reading 22.0 mpg upon arrival in the metropolis area, so that’s probably the 80-mph highway average). Direct comparison with the Ford Flex and Chevy Traverse as we experienced in the 2009 SUV of the Year competition accentuates shortcomings in the Journey’s engine refinement, performance and efficiency, limit-handling prowess, and interior trim calibre but on its own the slightly smaller outside dimensions are appealing when maneuvering in tighter parking lots and crowded garages, and the interior packaging is first-rate. It’s a comfy highway hauler that should really shine with the forthcoming global V-6 and a mid-cycle Ralph Gilles interior makeover. We ended our journey in a warm parking space at DFW and flew home to frozen pipes and three more months of character-building weather. Bon voyage indeed.

DETROIT - Mitt Romney has entered the fray. He calls for letting General Motors and probably Chrysler and maybe Ford file for Chapter 11 rather than suffer the indignities of an anti-free market $25-billion bailout/loan guarantee package. Romney cites his father George’s efforts as American Motors chief from 1954 to 1962, when he won election to become Michigan governor.

Romney the senior (who also ran unsuccessfully for the GOP presidential nomination, in 1968) gets credit for saving American Motors. He dumped the Nash and Hudson brands, to carve a niche with the Rambler line, which passed Plymouth for third-place in sales. It probably didn’t hurt that Rambler’s line fed a compact-hungry American public years before GM, Ford and Chrysler finally responded.

Romney the junior credits his dad’s hard work and cost cutting, not product. Makes sense to me: growing up a county north of the Rambler plant in Kenosha during the ’60s and ’70s, I remember American Motors getting increasingly thin on product. The 1968 Javelin and AMX were the first models I remember that were designed to “save” AMC. And they did, along with the Matador, Gremlin, Hornet, Pacer and Renault Alliance right up until the point that Chrysler bought it and took it out of its misery in order to get Jeep.

Now, even Jeep may not be worth saving, though some analysts have suggested that Chrysler should become Jeep, and concentrate on those models. A Chrysler/Dodge/Jeep dealer in Metro Detroit advertised, last weekend, leftover 2008 Jeeps at employee discount prices, ranging from about $15,000 for a Compass to $18,000+ for a Commander. If the only Chrysler brand worth saving is Jeep, then the only Jeeps worth saving are the Wrangler/Wrangler Unlimited and the Grand Cherokee.

(Lite Reading is correct, by the way: Robert Nardelli meant to say Tuesday that Chrysler is burning through $4-$5-billion per quarter, not per month. The comments of the three auto chiefs were from transcripts presented to the Senate. They did not necessarily read their entire statements.)

At least the next Grand Cherokee could keep one works in Senator Richard Shelby’s home state running for a while. Shelby, the biggest Republican opponent to a government loan guarantee bailout for the Detroit Three, is from the non-union automaking state of Alabama. In September, one of those manufacturers, Mercedes-Benz, announced it would cut back production of the M-Class (basis for the next Grand Cherokee) and GL-Class it builds there. Honda and Hyundai production probably are innocuous in Alabama, but the other maker with a works in that state is Toyota, whose imported products have been clogging up the docks at Long Beach, along with those from Mercedes and Nissan.

What does Toyota build in Alabama? It makes V-8 and V-6 engines for Tundras, Tacomas and Sequoias. Good luck with that.

Latest on Capitol Hill is that Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Illinois) thinks a compromise bill the Republicans have proposed, to convert the $25-billion in fuel-efficiency incentive loan guarantees could be converted into a bridge loan, might pass in the Senate. Problem is that it probably won’t pass in the House, where Democrats don’t want to upset environmentalist constituents.

Meanwhile, Republicans also are calling for GM to fire Rick Wagoner, Ford to fire Alan Mulally and Chrysler to fire Bob Nardelli. And ABC News Wednesday morning caught them jumping off private jets to arrive in Washington, D.C. (I warned them to fly coach.)

The sillier it gets, the more obvious it becomes that the entire automobile business, not just GM, Ford and Chrysler, is in peril.

BMW, recently the most profitable full-line automaker, says it can operate in current conditions for two years before running out of cash and shutting down. European automakers are looking for EU bailouts, and automakers in China, the fastest-growing market, say they want government help, too.

Nardelli said Wednesday that Chrysler LLC - the maker that its owner, Cerberus, pretended it would hold for the long-term right up to the point that GM merger talks emerged - has considered, but finally dismissed, filing for bankruptcy.

The upshot of all this is that if the free market continues unabated, and the global recession (or whatever we’re in) marches on for a couple of years, then most every major maker will have filed for bankruptcy. Consumers, whatever is left of them, won’t have to pick one over the other because they trust the solidity of a brand’s warranty.

Guess this raises the question, where’s George Romney, when you need him?