My Daughter is one of them (
http://ppp2013.tumblr.com). They are now in Altai, Mongolia w/ 1000km to get to Ulan Baatar.
They are having a problem with their Micra (2005, I believe. It has "M" plates). Right now I can't tell exactly what's wrong as I'm half way around the world from there.
All I know now is that they are not too sure about the mechanic they found and they got towed 100km into Altai.
If I can get some more specific information from her I'll update this topic or start a new one.