A common car for tourist trips in Kyrgyzstan is Toyota Sequoia or Toyota Land Cruiser. Amazing cars for off-road, quite spacious, but these cars are not suitable for my needs. Bike carrier can be arranged for them easily, either on the roof, or on a tow hitch.
Why they were not suitable, is because there are 3 clients with their bikes, bags, there should be several tents, one of them would be a big tent for cuisine, a supply of water and products, and bags of clients. Neither Toyota Land Cruiser nor Toyota Sequoia is not spacious enough for this. Aside from that, there will be at least 1 person as a guide. So 5 people - driver, guide, 3 guests, plus this amount of luggage is not going to fit in one car. Two cars? Great, but budget doesn't allow it. Having two cars with one extra driver will make the price go high to the stratosphere.
So there should be only one car, but spacious enough. I asked the same guy who gave me advice about UAZ Buhanka. He said that our mutual acquaintance might have something interesting - a short Mercedes Benz Sprinter van. Usually Sprinters are long and not suitable for proper off-road, but that guy, our mutual acquaintance, had a short version of it, which might be the best choice for the trip. I contacted him, and he said that he would help me, either with his own van, or arrange someone with a similar van, if his tour gets confirmed and he would need to send his van on this tour.
Later he told me that his van won't be available, but gave me several contacts of drivers who might be suitable for the job.
I contacted one guy from the list, we agreed to meet as soon as possible, and when I met him and talked to him, I understood that he might be able to accomplish the task. He suggested to go to the expedition on his car, to check if all the roads would be passable by his van. I accepted his offer, because it was reasonable. Initially I wanted to have as low costs as possible for this expedition - that meant to hire a local guy with a Lada Niva or similar SUV car that won't charge too much, and we could have as few days as possible, just gallop by all roads and see if there is no problems, decide on camping spots for each day, and that's all.
However, the guy with Mercedes van asked me a very reasonable question - even if all roads are passable for that SUV that I was thinking to use, will it passable for his car? It will be him and that Mercedes van that is going on a tour, not another car, so aside from checking all camping spots and road conditions, we also need to be sure that his car is good enough. That's why I accepted his offer, we agreed on price for his services for the tour and for the expedition, and set up the date of the start. At that moment I was not thinking much about the expenses and potential revenue from the trip, because the important part was to execute the plans properly, not only for the profit. Profit might come later, but for now - we need to be sure that everything goes smooth.
So the problem with the driver and the suitable van is solved. Judging by the size, his van is an ideal choice for our trip - it is spacious enough, has places for at least 5 people, plus all the luggage that is going to be there, at the same time maintaining the properties of an SUV for rough mountain roads and is not too long.