Product Warranties

We provide certain service and warranty on our products. From time to time, we also voluntarily incur costs for certain warranty-type expenses occurring after the normal warranty period to help protect the reputation of our products and the goodwill of our customers. Estimated costs related to product warranty are accrued at the time of sale and are based upon historical warranty and service claims experience. Adjustments are made to accruals as claim data and cost experience becomes available.

In addition to the costs associated with the contractual warranty coverage provided on our products, we also occasionally incur costs as a result of additional service actions not covered by our warranties, including product recalls and customer satisfaction actions. Although we estimate and reserve for the cost of these service actions, there can be no assurance that expense levels will remain at current levels or such reserves will continue to be adequate.

Changes in our product warranty liability are as follows:



(in thousands)	2019			2018			2017
Balance at beginning of year	$	40,498		$	30,805		$	12,412
Business acquisitions⁽¹⁾	—			611			12,904
Provision	45,902			42,377			31,631
Claims paid	(41,964		)	(33,295		)	(26,142		)
Balance at end of year	$	44,436		$	40,498		$	30,805


(1)	Refer to Note 2, Business Combinations, for additional information on the acquisitions of Grand Design and Chris-Craft.