Word Of Mouth

The reason I went with a shift ball from Twisted ShifterZ rather than the RPI brand model is strongly related to the experience of a friend.

Both companies use a rubber o-ring to provide friction to keep the trim-ring at the top of the shift boot from rotating out of the groove at the top and falling down.

Twisted uses a 2-1/8" ball. Nakid/RPI a 2-1/4".

This might not seem critical, but it makes a huge clearance difference where the trim-ring meets the ball. The smaller ball leaves a bit more space for "squish" of the o-ring and allows the groove to be closer to the ball.

Both companies use the same sized, cheap and readily available o-rings.

The larger ball has to put the ring a little lower, and that changes the relationship of the ball to the ring enough that different size o-rings should be specified.

It also seems apparent that Nakid/RPI is failing to account for tolerances and where a single customer is having an issue and many others aren't: that means they made one wrong. The solution is to exchange it cheerfully and promptly. Business 101.

Insisting that the customer is missing something when the product isn't working... Well, I guess there's a reason that RPI was able to purchase Nakid, huh?

After such a horrible experience with Nakid, I don't think I'd easily risk the near $100 for an RPI knob without a return label and money back guarantee in the box with the second attempt.

They should also take note that the bad experience they describe on the forum caused me to look for a different vendor. Now they're out two sales from one bad part. Possibly more. I certainly wouldn't recommend RPI.

Their experience also got me looking for other dissatisfied customers, and spontaneous fall-apart is a recurring RPI knob problem in the C6. Something I would relay to anyone asking me about after-market knobs for the car.