Bill--no correlation between the leaking around the rear seals and oil all over the engine compartment and the fact that your car won't move in reverse. If there's no oil on the tranny dipstick, then you're out of tranny oil. Was all the oil around the engine compartment red, or some off red color? If so, tranny oil. Most likely culprit is the tranny hose that connects to the back of the radiator about six inches down from the top, just under the big flat black air intake hose, and five or six inches from the end of the battery. It's a rubber hydraulic line about 3/4's of an inch in diameter with a metal crimped on end, and connected to the back of the radiator by a round spring clip on the end. If the connecting clip has failed, it will allow the hose to blow off and pump your tranny fluid all over the engine and the ground. If the hose is still connected and not leaking, then look for a tranny leak in the radiator. The radiator not only cools the engine coolant, but also the tranny fluid which can get very hot. The radiator has two compartments, and if the tranny compartment in the radiator has failed to the outside of the radiator, that could account for the loss. I have two 97's, a GLT and an R, and haven't seen this post, ever. Did someone recently flush your transmission? They could have bent the connecting coupling like Jiffy Lube did on my first 97, thus compromising the connection to the radiator. Dick