One problem related to transmission not engage has been reported for the 2001 Subaru Outback. The most recently reported issues are listed below.
The automatic transmission park mechanism does not engage properly. With selector lever in "park " and car turned off and ignition key removed, the car rolls. In the early years, the car rolled only slightly and finally "engaged": now, the car rolls several feet and does not always engage, requiring use of the emergency brake for all parking. Because the problem is getting worse, we searched for repair & recall information. We found that although our model & year are on the recall list for this park mechanism, our VIN# is not.