If there is a high rate of failure for the Assisted Steering on the Focus Mk3, and this appears to be well known, shouldn't Ford be replacing these at minimal cost (or free under Safety Recall)? I have spent £120 on diagnostics with Ford to confirm the problem and now am being charged £1,406 for it to be fixed. I asked about cheaper alternatives but was only offered financing. That is atrocious and has really trashed my opinion of Ford.

My Focus is 14 reg and has about 30k miles on the clock. Ford confirm the battery has been checked and is not the cause.

I seem to remember reading a post about this which suggested that power steering failure is not a safety issue, as the car doesn't careen out of control or explode. 

You can still control the car, just not so easily.

Not that I agree with this and I think Ford's are treating you pretty badly.

There are cheaper alternatives, just not from ford themselves. 

My local garage offered a third party steering rack fitted for around £800 but I went with a refurbished rack that came with a 2 year warranty costing just under £600 fitted.