1998 Other Saturn Models won't go into reverse

A few months ago my 1998 Saturn SL II reverse gear stopped working. I've read that this seems to be a common problem. Do you have a suggestion for a quick, temporary fix? I am in California and getting ready to "retire" the car through the state. This is a program where the State will purchase your car for $1,000.00 if it fails the smog test in order to remove older, less-efficient cars from the road. The state will not take the car if it doesn't back up 30 feet. I am looking into Lucas Oils Tranny Fix to see if that might work. The car just races when shifted into reverse, but other gears work fine. All I need is for the tranny to engage in reverse for 30 seconds. Got any ideas?