Originally Posted by onehundred80

I am not sure of the above statements, I have had cars for 50 odd years and all but one had an alternator, I have had batteries die on me and I have driven the car to get another battery. I have had to replace only one alternator in that time and it was because I could not put it back together after looking for a bad bearing.
The battery acts as a buffer and spikes are absorbed, running a car with the battery being disconnected after starting or jumping may cause problems though.[/SIZE]