Nissan has issued a recall of its adult- contemporary SUV, the Murano, due to a possible alternator defect. Approximately 140,000 Muranos from model-years 2003-2005 in the US and Canada are affected by the callback. According to the NHTSA, a wire could break inside the alternator, preventing the battery from charging and could cause a crash. (NHTSA parlance alert: You know the issue is recall-worthy when you see "and could cause a crash" tacked on to an alert.) We once had an alternator short out while on a highway in the middle of the night. It's pretty freaky to lose power and headlights at the same time. Thankfully we were near a town where hungry tow trucks roamed the streets in packs of 50, trained to sniff out the near-empty wallets of lost travelers. Damn you, Long Island.

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