Stickshift sloppy

I just purchased a 96 Aspire and find that the shifter is sloppy in that it has a lot of movement in all directions. The car drives well and I can change gears ok but sometimes I find I have to look for the proper gear. Is there a way to fix this and is it difficult or expensive to fix? Thanks for any help. shamrock.

Welcome to AF. The wear could be in the shift linkage itself or the transmission. On the shift linkage there are 2 bushings that can be replaced and there is the ball and socket which could be replaced. If it is an internal transmission problem it would be very expensive to fix. If it's the linkage it is cheap to do and easy to do. Pull the shift lever to see how badly the ball and socket is worn and you can change out the bushings from underneath the car.