Ok, The grey area thing is stretching it! The reason I say this is grey is because I have heard people justify it in many ways. You can bend the shifter above the tunnel right? Well in a Neon the whole shifter is above the tunnel. Some have said that a short throw shifter is bent above the tunnel? It's a stretch, but I have heard it that way. I think the Neon shifter is sloppy, but you get used to it. The bushings in the cable ends are the problem to much of the feel. By the letter of the rule you are unable to replace with anything but stock. If the part you replaced them with looked stock could anyone protest you and win, I doubt it. Any plastics guys out there? The simple truth is if someone wants to piss and moan because of a shifter bushing they have way to much time on their hands. I believe that most of those folks should spend more time driving and less time worried about such things. We all do this because we love it, lets keep it that way and not worry about such things like replacing a bushing to service a very expensive part. The guys that are good at cheating, don't cheat parts that you can see through the drivers window anyway.

Please don't misunderstand me, I don't condone cheating. We do need to use some reasonableness ( is that a word?) when dealing with issues like this.