Chevrolet: trasmission/shifting gears, cigarette butts, chevy cavalier

Question
1994 Chevy Cavalier, 5 sp, 4 cyl

First part of the day, the car drove absolutely fine.  Leaving work, however, I put the car into 1st gear.  The result was an aweful shake throughout the car.  On second attempt, same thing.  After further thinking as to why it dawned on me that the shifter stick developed a tendency to lean as far left as possible (unlike being in the neutral position and having 'play' back and forth).  Then it dawned on me that what I thought was first gear (forward, upper left position of the stick) was actually 3rd gear.  I can access 3rd, 4th, 5th, and Reverse with no problems, but cannot get the car into first nor second gear.  Thank you in advance for your insight.  In addition to any response, could you include a guess-timate on a reasonable cost for the repair?  Thanks again! mdk


Answer
Part of the shift linkage may have come loose on the transmission or something is binding it up. It could also be a problem with the shifter itself. It may have come loose or something may have broken on the shifter. It could also be that something fell down inside the console and is stuck in the shifter. I would check that first. Take the console apart and just look for anything that looks broken or anything that shouldn't be in there, like pens, cassette tapes, loose change, cigarette butts, etc.
If you dont see anything, you should probably take it into the shop and have it looked at.
I cant really give you any kind of estimate on this problem.