The "joyless" 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 shifter

Any 2009 Mazdaspeed 3 owners out there, what have you done to improve shifting? Shifting feels like stirring a box of rocks. You can never be sure what gear you're going to hit. Downshifts from 5th to 4th often end up in 2nd, and so on...

I've added a short throw plate and swapped the 20 oz. counterweight for a much lighter one. The front-to-back throws are much shorter, but side to side is still long. (Shifting to 5th feels like I'm reaching for the glove box.) The throws are shorter but precision hasn't improved.

Is it worth installing a full short throw shifter (about $275 last time I priced it)? Any other suggestions?

Shifting is helped a lot by a decent rear motor mount. Not solved, but certainly improved.

I had a COBB adjustable shifter in my '08 with a Whiteline motor mount and it was definitely better than stock. It's still not a great shifting car. The improvements don't "fix" it as such, but they definitely make the best of a bad situation.

Shifter bushings are critical.

I have bushings, an SSP with the lightened weight and a 625 g knob on my 2011. It's not perfect but it is what it is. I hear the short shifters are night and day compared to the SSP but I never pulled the trigger.

The JBR shifter is $125, it appears to be the only one available right now.

Corksport's appears to be NLA and TWMs has been out of stock for a while.

You can also play with the shifter weight and various knob weights to see if any combination feels better. That's sadly not going to change the lateral throw though.

I'm interested in this too.

I trimmed the bushings sleeves, removed the counterweight and fitted a delrin shift knob. Oh and I have an E-Focus RMM. Yea, it's not great. Redline MT-90 and removing the counterweight did the most for me. I don't find it to be vague but it's far from refined. At least the torque means you don't have to shift as much in the canyons.