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I have to provide an English translation of my bachelor thesis' title and I couldn't find a term in the dictionary. At the moment I call it "Development of a car diagnosis application", but I am unsure if "car diagnosis" is the correct term. Maybe "vehicle diagnosis" or "automotive diagnosis" or ... ?

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Could I please have the thesis in its original language? – Thursagen May 20 '11 at 10:08
Sure, but it's not written yet. :-) I need the title for registering my thesis at the faculty. I hope to have it done at the end of July. – ladybug May 20 '11 at 10:11
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Good luck! Hope everything goes smoothly for you. – Thursagen May 20 '11 at 10:13
Thank you very much! :-) – ladybug May 20 '11 at 10:15
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Looking at Google Ngrams, "car diagnosis" is most common, followed by "automotive diagnosis" and then "vehicle diagnosis." But "car diagnosis" sounds too informal to me for a thesis title, so I'd suggest "automotive diagnosis." – Peter Shor May 20 '11 at 10:40
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up vote 6 down vote accepted

Usually the adjective diagnostic is used instead, for example 'vehicle diagnostic tool'.

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so, does "Development of a vehicle diagnostic application" sound correct to you? :) – ladybug May 20 '11 at 10:47
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Yes, it sounds correct but you could use automotive instead of vehicle. If you search academic papers they clearly use both and I can't tell if there is a different meaning. – z7sg Ѫ May 20 '11 at 10:53
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"Development of an automotive diagnostic application". Sounds good to me, too. Thank you :) – ladybug May 20 '11 at 11:19
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Make sure to use automotive, as vehicle is ambiguous. – AttackingHobo Jun 8 '11 at 22:11

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