I'm curious, but why does it look shady? The service is free, without trying to sell you something, or even sign up for a mailing list. Hardly shady in my book. Still, I don't want to leave a bad taste in someone's mouth if it can be avoided. I wrote the application myself because I was tired of hunting down a working VIN decoder for my '69 Mustang. I noticed that there wasn't any ONE place to go to get a VIN decoded, and some models weren't even available.
Me being a programmer and not a bolt-turner wanted to make my contribution to the hobby.
Richard