Alternator/generator/regulator problems of the 2002 Mercury Sable

I have a 2002 Mercury Sable with 54,000 miles. Suddenly & w/o warning, my alternator stopped working and drained my battery. I have had 3 Ford products with some lasting 160,000 miles w/o ever having problems with alternators. I talked w/the customer service rep. At the repair shop about having to replace an alternator on a 3 year old vehicle, and he indicated that they had had a fairly large no. Of Mercury Sable & Ford taurus replacement of alternators. Is this a design defect in the alternators?.

I have a 2002 Mercury Sable w/ 40,000 miles on it. The car had to be taken back numerous times the hub caps fell off after the 6th time they replaced with alloy wheels. The right & left sway bar end links have been replaced. The altenator went out and was replaced. The transmission had to completely be overhauled. The powertrain control module replaed, the spark plug wire replaced, replaced processor and key. #4 plug wire shorting out caused coil to go bad and fouled #3 ac coil asy-ign replaced after fixing $3 & #4 showed up on power balance retest,but said road test was ok at this time suggested fel management. It scares me that so much can go wrong on a 2002 auto. I did have extended warranty on the altenator and transmission, but I would have hated to pay the $3028. 00 charge to fix the problem, I wasn't real happy to pay the deductible. The extended warranty got stuck paying even though I had the car in under orignal warranty for the same problem.