A client and server are operable within a community of clients for transferring vehicle diagnostic data captured from vehicles. The server includes a central library for storing captured vehicle data (CVD) prior to receiving client requests for CVD from the central library to compare to CVD within a client's local library. The client request may include vehicle identification data and client settings so that the CVD provided to the client is from another client configured to the same client settings and from a type of vehicle that matches a vehicle-type identified by the vehicle identification data. Alert requests transmitted by a client or server can be received by a client or a remote alert device to provide notice that another client has requested CVD. CVD can be associated with data tags that reduce the burden in locating the CVD and include data relating to the capture of the CVD.