1965-1970 Fungo Van HE 1.0

In 1965, the Fungo Van would be introduced and the project was spearheaded by Fredrick Fungo Jr himself. He came up with the idea of making a vehicle for the bigger family since his current vehicle didn't have enough room to travel them. The project was started all the way back in 1958. 8 years and $4,000,000 later, the Fungo Van was finally introduced in 1965 and Freddy himself took a gamble by discontinuing every product line to make room for the Van and the Fungo Miramar which was to be the future of the Fungo Motor Company and costed less money considering that it is a North-American Spec Ibishu Miramar. All that needed to be done was make it left-hand drive and have it pass safety and emissions testing in North American countries. Final assembly of the Fungo Miramar was done in Fungo's Canadian plant in Brantford, Ontario in order to cut down on import costs.

No new engines were made for the Fungo Van and the four engines that were used in Fungo Samaritan (A station wagon that used the Royale platform), Fungo Royale, Fungo Mule (Fungo's failed attempt to enter the pickup truck market) and, even the il-fated Fungo Sabre sports car (Even though it only used the 290 V8 along with a supercharged variant of the 290 V8 and a 316 ci V8) which was another one of Fungo's failed business ventures. This was done to cut production costs on the van itself. And, the Fungo Van would also use an updated version of the Fungo Mule platform since it was the only light truck platform that Fungo had.

The HE models of the Fungo Van were amongst some of the more infamous of the Fungo Van due to the fact that they were underpowered and were often at times unreliable. The water cool was located right next to the oil pan and this made them prone to overheating to the point where they would catch fire. Several of these vans along with the Fungo Samaritan HE and Fungo Royale HE were recalled. There a total of 1,313 fires reported and most of them came from either the Fungo Samaritan HE or Fungo Van HE. However, 25 Fungo Royale HE models were also reported to catch fire. But, the HE models of the Royale were not that popular and most buyers preferred the 186 or 290 models of the Fungo Royale itself. Reliability issues aside, the Fungo Van HE was pretty fuel efficient hence the HE standing for "High Efficiency". They were also the cheapest models of the Fungo Van that you could get and are the most common models of the Fungo Van alongside the Fungo Van 186.

Like every other model of the Fungo Van, the Fungo Van HE would be discontinued in 1970 when the Fungo Motor Company was forced to shut down and filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. However, the unsold 1970 Fungo Vans would be sold in used car dealerships after the Fungo dealerships were closed down. The HE and 186 models of the Fungo Van would eventually be all sold off in 1973 right when the oil crisis happened as there was a demand for more fuel efficient vehicles at that time. But, the 290 and 420 4x4 models would still sit in used car dealer lots even well into the 1990's where they were well past 20 years old by now.

A lot of these unsold vans were often sold with heavily-discounted prices and some never made it past the original Fungo factory due to the fact that they were being overstocked and the Fungo family themselves had nowhere else to store them. The last Fungo van to be sold off is a light blue Fungo Van 420 4x4. This mint condition van was sold off in 2001 and it is owned by the owner of the Royal Woods Municipal Church. When the church was closed down in 2015, the van would then be sold to a collector. It would not remain in service when the church would eventually be bought by the Hunnicutt Family.

Even if it has it's haters, the Fungo Van was an important piece in automotive history and it is a tale of one CEO betting the whole farm and then losing the lot. Had it been introduced later, it would've been more successful as passenger vans became popular in the 1970's. But then again, the several of the Fungo vans would remain unsold during those times.