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I had an almost identical problem in my last car (a 96 Ford Taurus). It turned out to be the alternator although we had to test it several times before we got a fail reading. There was some sort of intermittent wiring problem that caused it to work sometimes (like when the garage tested it!) and not others (like when I needed to get home from work).
I think it was related to the extra drain from the cig lighter. I didn't have a cooler unit, but I was using a lot of electronics on a regular basis. (charging cell phones, using notebook computer, portable dvd player, etc).
I replaced the alternator twice with a cheapo model, and kept having the same problem before finally paying out for the "heavy duty" model and never had another problem with it for the next two years before I sold the car.
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