Diagnostic procedures and method of collecting vehicles

A server-based diagnostic method for vehicles of a group of vehicles, the diagnostic method comprising:

• acquiring data relating to at least one vehicle from the group of vehicles, from a social medium;
• automatically determining, via determination device, complaints relating to a criticized characteristic of the at least one vehicle, depending on the acquired data;
• and
• generating diagnostic information, via a processing device, for the at least one vehicle depending on the complaints,
• retrieving vehicle diagnostic information from a vehicle diagnostic system of a vehicle from the group of vehicles depending on the generated diagnostic information, and validating the diagnostic information generated based on the vehicle diagnostic information retrieved,
• wherein the social medium is a blog or user forum,
• determining a popularity of the use of a vehicle function from the group of vehicle functions, based on frequency of use of the vehicle function as determined by analysis of the acquired data,
• automatically electronically logging, via electronic log mechanisms in a fleet of vehicles, every use of a vehicle function by users of the fleet of vehicles to determine an actual popularity of the vehicle function based on an actual frequency of use by the users, and
• validating the popularity of the use of the vehicle function based on the acquired data from the social medium by comparing the determined popularity with the actual popularity.