Oh oh- Car broke down...

In the middle of nowhere (well, actually between a cow farm and the beach) around ten at night with minus 3 degrees our car broke down. We found an old Icelandic farmer that didn't speak English. He probably hadn't seen a car before either. We tried pushing the car for about half an hour but were completely stuck. After some negotiations with the rental company they called the nearest gas station and asked the only (random) person eating there (with his two small kids) to pick us up. He did. We abandoned our car, sqeezed our luggage and ourselves into his van and he brought us to the nearest hotel with restaurant and central heating. After about 3 hours a guy with a new car arrived from Reykjavik so we could continue our journey back home. We still don't know what made the car break down but we have a feeling that the fuel gauge was broken and we were out of diesel. But since none of us knows anything about cars it might have been something else.