loose shifter w/ new bushings

Hello -

I have a '88 E30 w/ a manual transmission. When I bought the car, it had a loose shifter. I had my mechanic, who specializes in German cars, replace all of the shifter's bushings.

It's still loose and my mechanic looked at it again and said they replaced everything and agreed it's still loose. He said the issue must be in the transmission itself. There is no other issue w/ the transmission, so I'm not going to drop it just for this problem.

Any ideas what it can be?

Thanks.