Among the horrendous damage from January 2025’s devastating wildfires, VW is restoring a survivor back to its original state.
With 30 deaths, more than 18,000 structures damaged or destroyed and tens of billions of dollars in damage, this year’s wildfires in Southern California left entire neighborhoods and communities obliterated. But one survivor somehow escaped the complete devastation of the Palisades Fire: a 1977 Volkswagen T2 Microbus, now known as the “magic bus”.
AP photographer Mark J. Terill captured the above photo of the bus miraculously still standing, seemingly unscathed by the wildfire. Megan Weinraub, the owner who named her white-over-blue Microbus “Azul”, got a call from Volkswagen of America offering to assess its condition and — if possible — restore it to its pre-fire condition.
“I knew Azul was becoming a symbol of hope,” Weinraub said, “and that people wanted to see more of her, but I had so much to work through at the time that I wasn’t sure how to approach it.”
There’s pretty much no other car that has California vibes like VW’s Type 2, and the automaker wanted to give this one a new lease on life after surviving such an ordeal. While the VW team determined Azul would indee need extensive mechanical fixes and bodywork (as it was seared on one side), it did indeed bring the us back to its Oxnard campus, about 35 miles northwest of Malibu.
Apart from repairing Weinraub’s beloved bus, VW also donated to the California Fire Foundation this year after the wildfires swept through whole communities. The automaker also collaborated with National Day Calendar to officially make June 2 “International Volkswagen Bus Day”.
It’s a neat story, to be sure, and Volkswagen says the restoration work is expected to be completed later this year.
