Tranny Linkage Cable

[vr6josh]

I bought my Jetta used and it seemed to have a slight slop in the shifting (manual). If I shifted it hard then it would seem to gum out the gears or in a few circumstances miss the gear. I have now come to find out that the main linkage cable was warn or bent because it completely broke on me the other day so my car is now stuck in 2nd gear till I can get around to buying the cable which will definately be soon. I'm just wondering if this is a semi common problem or if the guy who owned the car before me beat the tranny too much because the car is low miles and I wouldn't think cables that only have the pressure of shifting would break easily.