NHTSA Complaint #11451184 — 2012 FORD EXPLORER

At approximately 122,000 miles, my 2012 Ford Explorer had no power steering and error messages came up on the dash. It was towed to my local Goodyear where 7 error codes came up. They replaced the battery and 4 out of the 3 error codes went away but power steering was still locked up and not drive-able. They advised me I needed to take it to a Ford Dealership. Had to wait 2 weeks for an appointment at my local Ford Dealership where they advised me my Steering Gear needed to be replaced. After researching this, there was a recall on this. My vehicle fell under this recall, however it was just 5 months past the 10 year manufactures warranty expired. My local dealership advised me they tried to have it covered but Ford denied their request. How convenient that it was just 5 months outside of the expiration date. We called Ford customer care and they basically said "too bad". There are several hundred complaints on this SAFETY issue and Ford customer care said "it's NOT a SAFETY recall". How is this not a safety problem? So now I am out $3000 that I didn't have on a faulty vehicle.