Is CarShield a waste of money?

Waste of money. Many exclusions. DO NOT BUY! I can't find any repair station that accepts Car Shield &/or AMERICAN AUTO (who is the actual company). Car Shield ONLY MARKETS/SELLS the warranty. They DO NOT APPROVE your repairs. I am out $1,800 & wasted a lot of time trying to find a repair shop to take Car Shield. THERE ARE CLASS ACTION SUITS against them. BBB grades them as 'F', their worse rating. 

It's a huge waste of money. I've owned 9 vehicles since 1996, and I've needed "major repairs" 3 times since then, the most expensive of which was a new transmission in my 2002 Ram. That cost was $2,700. But I currently drive a 2011 Silverado. A couple years ago Carshield quoted the Silverado at about $115 a month. So in the 4 and a half years that I've had the Silverado, I would've spent over $6,200 on a Carshield plan. For the record, the Silverado has never been in the shop. But even if it needed a new transmission like my Ram, remember that was only $2,700. You do the math. 

If your car doesn't have maintenance issues often then it would be a waste of money, in my opinion. You're paying hundreds of dollars a month for something that might not even happen. It would be cheaper to pay for the maintenance when it's needed, and most good shops will let you do payment plans if they're needed. 

If your car does break down often, Carshield will either charge you insane monthly rates or not cover many major issues, based on what I've heard from past customers. 

I'd personally skip this.

Carshield does NOT pay for repairs like they claim to. I have the gold protection coverage which includes powertrain. My transmission started having issues and the adjuster said theywould NOT cover ANY repairs because it was a "PRE-EXISTING CONDITION". I purchased Carshield to give me peace of mind because it was a 5 year oldvehicle and I had no records of how the previous owners maintained the car.

Well Carshield will not cover repairs that were due to the negligence of the previous owner. I asked the adjuster what was the point of used car warranty if that was the case and he said did not know. The adjusters name is Mark. They send out an inspector that works for them which will find a way to get away with not having to pay for repairs. Mark also clearly told me on the phone that the only thing they could cover was the diagnostics test then refused to cover that as well. I called the Carshield claims department asking for Mark to give me a call and they said he didn't have to call me and then pretended that they couldn't hear me and hung up on me. NEVER IN MY LIFE HAVE I EVER DEALT WITH SUCH A FRAUDULENT, UNETHICAL, UNPROFESSIONAL COMPANY. I highly recommend you do not waste your money on this company or expect for them to pay for any repairs.

It is absolutely a waste of money cuz the first big major claim that you have when something breaks with your car or truck it will take 2 to 3 weeks to actually get an answer if they are going to cover it or not and nine times out of 10 I have found they do not cover anything major major so all the commercials are lies