I have a Tiger Cat purchased in 2010. Have 155 hours on it. Have had to replace magnetic clutch, hour meter, pto switch and just replaced both ignition coils. Has a Kawasaki 19hp engine. The scag mower is heavy built and very durable. The engine is a much less than I expected. In retrospect, I should have purchased one with a Kohler engine.
I have 4 Tiger Cats with Kawasaki 22 hp engines on them. All 4 are 52" units. One bought in July 2014, one bought April 2015, One bought May 2016, and I purchased the last one (A Tiger Cat II) in April of this year. The second mower has been the "problem child" if there has been one. It had some electrical problems at several different times. It has had the stator and regulator changed, then it had fuse blowing problems. It has had an hour meter go out. It has had the electric clutch replaced. Then it has had another voltage regulator changed. It has also had two batteries put in it. At this time it appears that all of those issues are finally fixed. It had about 800 hours on it when the hour meter was replaced and has around 175 hours on the new one. It ran a while without one working as well. The oldest is in the 1800 hours range. The third one is in the 850 hour range. The last one now has close to 100 hours on it.
I just replaced the PTO clutch switch on the third one this past week. It would engage but the spring got so weak on it that it would not stay engaged.
I promise you all of these mowers have been assaulted as far as cutting grass is concerned. WE cut acres, and acres of Pensacola Bahia grass in the heat of South Alabama. I have seen many kinds of mowers running in our area. I personally have never operated nor sat and watched anything else cut that will stay with one of them cutting Bahia grass. If I found something that would out cut them and it was sold locally I would be running it. In my experience there is nothing I have seen cut that will cut tall stemmed grass with a 52" Tiger Cat Scag with a Kawasaki engine on it.