I will do my best to make this simple and straight forward. I am hosting the pics for now on my CarDomain site. If there is a better way to get pics in these threads please let me know. First thing you want to do is unscrew your shiftnob.

What were Mazda thinking? After many years of waiting, I was finally able to afford a Mazda 6 (actually a 2007 Atenza - the import version) & I love it, apart from one really stupid design flaw.

No need for a pic here, just turn it lefty loosey til it comes off. Next thing you want to do is take the cup holder out. All you have to do is open it, stick your hand in with your thumb on the outside and squeeze like the pic below. It will pop right out. *Please note here, there is a tab at the top right of the cupholder connecting to the console around the shifter. I broke this, so I don't know how to safely remove that but beware. I am no worse for wear without it though.

Remove your ashtray and set it aside Next lift up on the shifter console carefully as there are 2 wires connected behind the ashtray area. Note the broken tab at the bottom right. V torrente ls models. The large plug is easy to squeeze and remove but the little light plug is annoying.

I used a small flat head to press the tab and release it. Not much slack there either. Also see in this picture those 2 black square plastic things at the end of the shifter cables. We'll be fighting with those later. Here is the exposed shifter. Note at the bottom right in the plastic the empty hole where a screw should have been from Mazda holding the side of my center console in place.

They must have implemented some cost savings. Next we're going to disconnect the left of the 2 cables you see in the picture above from the shifter arm by using a 10mm socket. Also slide the cable on the right off to the left (reverse that on a 6i/4 cylinder) and remove the two philips screws holding the sides of the console on (if you have 2, like I pointed out above I only had 1 on the left). Here they both are disconnected.

Next I have a theory. They tell you here to remove the 4 large nuts you see connecting the whole white plastic shifter assembly to the car (use a 12mm socket AND and extender). This will loosen the whole thing but the shifter cables are still attached via those previously mentioned black square clips. After that they tell you to use a flat head to press on the bottom of the square shifter cable clips and pry upwards to remove them from the shifter base.

I broke one of these by following the directions (small plastic tab at the bottom snapped off). Costmetic damage essentially and had no effect on my install but still. I think you could likely remove the shifter cables BEFORE removing the 4 12mm nuts and it might go easier. Maybe not, take these 2 steps in the order you prefer.

See pics below. Here is the assembly fully removed from the car. Now it get's greasy.

Have some shop towels around to handle the mess. The next thing you need to do is remove the 4 metal and rubber bushings that the bolts went through.

I used my 10mm socket to push out the metal and then just grab the rubber and pull it out. Now for the cutting, WORST part of the install. First if you look at any of the pictures of the assebly above you will see that there is a brass colored bolt that runs perpendicular in front of the shifter stick itself. Vst pro tools.