The 2007+ lotus elise/ exige are all equipped with a shifter that is prone to failure. i have personally had a broken shifter while driving on the highway and was stuck at the 3rd gear and almost got into a car accident. many have also reported the same situation. it's believed to be true that the ball joint structure at the pivot point on the bottom of the shifter is the main reason to this failure. almost every case that has surfaced on internet has shown the identical broken structure which we called the "blue ball". it is made with plastic and is commonly shattered in pieces, and that happens, the entire shifter is loose and broken.