Yeah I got mine from a rack refurbisher for £350 + a £50 core charge because they didn't want my Gen 2 in exchange
In the case of the Gen 3, it's likely just an inspection as they rarely go wrong.
VW were around the £1500+VAT mark last time I enquired, plus £110 for the Gen 3 harness. Yeah, good luck with that VW.
Blimey, I didn't know you could run them without assistance because when the engine isn't running, the steering feels really rubbery, like the column shaft is a bread stick or something. I guess that's just the motor not doing anything and when removed, normal feel is resumed, similar to hydraulic PAS being crazy heavy with no assistance until you swap it out with a non-assisted rack? I wonder how EPS behaves during a failure on the road? Still rubbery and squishy like a cheese string?
Anyway, when you get a rack, try and get one from a MK6 GTI as it will have the right 'sports' steering profile its module. Diesels, 1.6s etc just have the 'normal' profile. You can't write a different profile to it without some code you get on a sticker with a brand new 'virgin' VW part. SKN code I think they call it? Or some such.
Other than that, it's just simple VCDS stuff to tell the steering and ABS to communicate via the angle sensor in the rack, rather than the steering column clock spring.