Shift cable problem, 2017 Stampede 900, need advice

[jertex]

I bought a 2017 Stampede 900 last fall that was new, old stock with less than 5 hours on it thinking that I would be getting a relatively trouble free UTV as compared to buying a used Polaris or CanAm, or Honda, etc. It's been a little quirky, but reliable. What I thought was just a minor issue with this model, the difficulty in shifting between R, N, L, H, etc., was just a characteristic of this model is now a big problem. I had to climb two very steep trails to get to the upper meadow of our hunting property, which seemed to stress the UTV more than usual since I was carrying some lumber to work on a platform for a hunting blind, and when I went to shift into park, I felt something give and it would not shift out of low, but it did move up into high gear.  I couldn't get it to shift at all at that point and the shifter felt mushy for lack of a better word. I was able to get it down to the lodge and when I investigated, I discovered that the straight, metal tube portion of the shift cable had bent to almost 90 degrees (see pics). I'm positive that it had already had some deformation that had happened previously and it had the right amount of resistance to bend to the point where it was unusable. 

I have two questions:

1. I suspect that there must be some other issues that makes this UTV difficult to shift, and I'm wondering if this is a common problem and if someone could enlighten me on what could cause this to be difficult to shift?

2. Have any of you had this happen and if so, how difficult is it to replace the shifter cable?

Any other advice is welcome, this is the first UTV that I've ever owned, so I don't know much about working on these or maintaining them. I'm relatively capable when it comes to working on my own vehicles in general, and I'm not afraid to take things apart and get my hands dirty.

Thanks in advance for any insight, I'll be traveling most the day so I won't get a chance to look at replies until this evening.