A car crazy couple have raised £1,500 for charity after driving 4,000 miles across Europe and Asia in a rusty Citroen 2CV.

Neil Harris and his partner Jan Williams set off from London to cross 11 countries, two deserts and five mountain ranges in a clapped-out car that cost just £200.

But the couple were forced to pull out of the Mongol Rally after 4,000 miles, in Aktobe, when their beloved car - nicknamed Marvin 3 - finally gave up in Kazakhstan.

Neil, of Spring Place, Great Horton, said: "Unfortunately the engine decided to spit all its oil out so we had to leave it there and fly back. We were about 100km south of Aktobe when the engine started going wrong.

"We turned around and were just coming into the city in the middle of the night when some young lads in a car picked us up. They towed us to a garage and got the owner to open for us and took us to a hotel.

The 48-year-old locum pharmacist added: "In the morning when the mechanic said they could do nothing for us, this lad drove us round again trying to find someone who could sort it out.

"We gave him Marvin because he was stunned by the car."

The couple had originally planned to complete the road trip in a Citroen they bought for just £20 from website ebay and nick-named Marvin because of its MRV registration plate.

But the "bargain" proved too good to be true when they discovered it was beyond repair and their attempts to create Marvin 2 by replacing the car's chassis failed.

Despite breaking down, Marvin 3 had carried Jan, 45, and Neil through France, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Russia before reaching Kazakhstan in just nine days and helped the couple to raise £1,500 for charity.

Save The Children Mongolia will benefit from £400 and the rest of the money will go to the Send A Cow charity which buys animals for needy families in East Africa, helping them become self-sufficient.

"We were very disappointed but we wouldn't have missed it for the world," said Neil. "It was incredible. For a while it was a relief to be off the road but when you saw other teams coming through still, you wanted to be part of it.

"Every time we stopped in Kazakhstan we had crowds of people around us who wanted to look at the engine. We were even in a couple of wedding photographs!"

Despite the absence of any mechanical or medical back-up for drivers in the race, the couple say they are determined to join the challenge again next year.