> If you are driving down the freeway, and decide to move the lever from drive to 2nd, and get confused, and by bad-habit depress the button, and slip into neutral and then into reverse, for just a split second, what happens?

Never done this in a Vanagon, but I did it once in my '82 Oldsmobile.
Reached over to set the clock while driving down the freeway at 70MPH
and somehow managed to bump the shift lever up into reverse. Rear
wheels effectively locked up, engine stopped dead, and there I was
fishtailing down the road with no power steering. Grabbed the lever,
put it in neutral (which stopped the skidding) and turned the key.
Started right up and I was on my merry way. Never had a single problem
with the transmission after that. I reckon the hydraulic
engine-transmission coupling provided by torque converter prevents any
really serious mechanical damage.

--
John Bange
'90 Vanagon - "Geldsauger"
'90 Vanagon GL - "Wiesel"