I was driving the car on the freeway when I noticed a slight miss.  It was
intermittent then got worse.  After a few miles it began bucking.  It
seemed like it was not getting any spark as it would cut out then puff
black smoke.  After about 5 - 7 miles it got so bad I had to pull off.  It
stalled immediately and everything was dead.  No power except for the power
windows.  I took it to a dealer and they told me it had a bad alternator.
Up to that point, it showed no signs of a bad alternator.  It cranked
fine, no dead battery or slow cranking.  I did notice about a week before
that happened that all my indicator lights on the dash came on and stayed
on....flickering occasionally.  But the alt. light never came on by
itself.  The dealership would not do any work until they replaced the
alternator.  My concern is that there was some other electrical problem
that caused the alternator to go bad and I am going to waste my money
installing a new alternator.  Questions: Couldn't they jump start the car
with the bad alternator and troubleshoot it further?  Would a bad
alternator cause a car to just die like that without much warning?  Has
anyone experienced a similir problem and if so what was the solution?  (I
should also note that when the car was parked, I had to turn on my turn
signal or the parking lights would come on.....seemed like an electrical
problem somewhere.)  I'd appreciate any advice.  Thanks!  Bob