Patent ID: 8041779

Claim:
A method for receiving vehicle-related information from a remote server by a vehicle, the vehicle having a receiving device and a memory, the method comprising: storing a first user profile in the memory of the vehicle; modifying the first user profile in the memory of the vehicle to include changes made to a second user profile stored in a remote memory in communication with the remote server; wherein the modified first user profile includes user preferences that are defined by a user of the vehicle; receiving the vehicle-related information from the remote server at the vehicle at a predetermined time based on a schedule; storing the vehicle-related information in the memory of the vehicle; selectively providing a user of the vehicle access to only a first subset of the stored vehicle-related information and blocking access to a second subset of the stored vehicle-related information based on the modified first user profile that is stored within the memory of the vehicle, the memory being in communication with the receiving device; wherein the received vehicle-related information comprises at least one of the following: vehicle maintenance schedules, oil change reminders, service campaigns, lease inspections, lease expirations, suggestions on how to more effectively use vehicle features, service recalls, lease extension offers, user surveys, and car diagnosis surveys; and wherein the method further comprises: receiving a prompt requesting a response by a user to the received vehicle-related information; scheduling a service appointment with a service provider in response to the prompt being associated with received vehicle-related information that indicates service is needed, wherein scheduling the service appointment further comprises transmitting to the remote server desired service appointment information; wherein the desired service appointment information is included in the user preferences; and wherein the remote server schedules the service appointment with the service provider based on the transmitted desired service appointment information.