I did this because it was a present from someone else and instead of putting them through the trouble of returning mail order merchandise, i figured I would make it fit, yes my mistake, I will admit that. As far as the greddy shift knob, I got that because A)It looks smooth, in my opinion, B)I knew it was a screw on and would fit well C)I just didn't like the stock knob, I have a scheme for my interior and this is where I am starting D) it is not even made by greddy it is made by Trust/Grex and Greddy adopated the knob, it actually doesn't even have greddy's name on it.

Also in my opinion these are modifications, maybe not performance modifications, but they are personalization mods. Would you like me to get out a Webster's and define the term for you?? Do what you want to your car, but in my opinion and based on my budget this is what I will have to do for now, so i am sorry if what I am doing to my car is "gay" to you, but to every man his own.

The whole point of this thread was to provide others with my personal expericence so they may learn from it and obviously many agree with me, yes it may have been somewhat of a rant, but that is because i was quite aggravated when I typed it up. I guess some people take doing simple things as being a waste, but I see otherwise, If you don't want to do these things it is fine but there is no reason to call what others like "gay". Why bash someone for what they like? This is turning into too long of a post, so I will say one last thing: I was asking for no ones opinion of what I did, and wanted no one's opinion of what I did becuase then I would have posted pics so you could see what I did (I AM NOT saying that in the future I do not want others opinions, becuase there are many people's opinions on this site that I value and appreciate when it is given, mostly defintely when it is asked for), I was simply trying to be a helpful guys to others, not start a bash fest.

Would you say the same about momo, they make universal parts, there are certain things that you can't buy with a specific application, because no company is gonna wanna go out of their way to deisgn 12 different e-brake handles for 12 different makes. All i was trying to say is that Ractive (and maybe every other company I do not have experience with other ones, Hell maybe mazda is the only damn car maker that makes their e-brakes like this who knows) has a horriblly wrong fit and warn other people of this

As far as this goes, then I guess you shouldn't install a MP3 body kit on a Pro unless you have the perfromance parts of the MP3!

I think you would not find many members on this forum that would agree with this statement, including I.

I have to agree. I think that if you buy a piece of equipment that is represented as good investment then it should be just that. If a company provides a product that doesn't meet "acceptable" standards then customers should be aware.

I bought Ractive products and was not happy. As far as buying "bolt on" parts kosmicride, if it says bolt on I expect it to bolt on. I have made the same modifications as others on this site to my Ractive intake. And I replaced my pedals with Sparco pedals which I spent about 2 hours drilling and fitting them.

I don't mind putting in the time to fit parts or come up with solutions. But when someone sells me something saying it will be a good and easy fit for a specific car ie Protege 2002, and it ends up not being then I get upset.

Whew Mazdaboy your rants are contagious. that being said the problems I have had with Ractive have been aliveated by help from posts on this site.

I think the important thing is to go in with your eyes wide open. If it says "universal" then you cannot expect it to fit a specific application. If a part is for a specific application, then it should damn well fit. The third scenario is where you know before hand that modifications will have to be made regardless of claims for a specific application or not (e.g. the Ractive intake).

I am happy with the Ractive intake even though it did not fit the car it was supposedly designed for. I was not disturbed by the poor fit and useless bracket because I knew about the issues before I bought it. If I was not prepared to do the mod work I would have simply spent 3 to 4 times more money on a different brand of intake... :rolleyes:

And how do you find out that a supposed "bolt-on" part will need modification? You cruise the forums of course. ;)

Which is exactly what started this whole thread. :p