[AlaninCarlisle]

I've been an owner/driver for 60 years but this is a new one on me. I have a Vauxhall Meriva 1600cc diesel. It's quite ancient but only has 40K miles on the clock. I was going to drive out of town today to pick up my mate for our monthly pub lunch. Started the car and set off down the drive. Just before I reached the road, the warning chimes started and the power-steering packed in completely. With a struggle I managed to reverse back up to the house and park it and the repair shop'll pick it up on Monday. Just glad it packed in when it did as it's almost undriveable without the power steering.

Anyone else had a similar problem?

[New shoot]

With any luck it will be something simple like you are too low on power steering fluid.  It will probably still need a mechanic though, as usually they have to hook the car up to a computer to reset the warning sensors.

We had it happen to a business vehicle, but luckily we have a car mechanic in one of the units near us and even luckier, it was just a power steering fluid problem, not the power steering itself.

[Boston digger]

Could be problematic and costly as this model has electric steering