John took delivery of the first VT taxi early in December, and it joins a 70-strong, exclusively Holden fleet. The Gange family have taxi blood running through their veins, having begun the business 100 years ago operating horse-drawn cabs around the streets of Melbourne.

"We ran Holdens in the forties," said John. "There was such a demand at the factory, we bought spare parts and built the cars ourselves! Astoria has operated Holdens forever, and this new VT model looks the goods. We're waiting on another 20 to be delivered," he said.

"I reckon we've always had a good run with Holdens, but the key is proper servicing. We service our fleet every four weeks or 10,000 kilometres, and we also specify ABS brakes on all our cars. It's an essential option as far as I'm concerned, because it means less accidents," he added.

*Holden's VT Commodore achieved the highest successive monthly sales in the nameplate's 20-year history over the October/November 1997 period.