power max transmissions has great reputation

About nine years ago Mike Owen was working for a company that he just didn’t find flexible enough for their customers. The business wanted to do things only one way. Owen didn’t like that.

The way he sees it, a service business should be about helping customers solve problems and offering the customer options.  Circumstances led him to become owner of Power Max Transmissions, and the rest is history. And a good history at that.

Owen has lived in Sevier County most of his life. His children attend school here. His father-in-law, Ray Williams, is pastor of McMahan Baptist Church in Sevierville. The last thing Mike Owen wants is to be walking down the aisle of a store and have to hide his face or walk the other way when he sees and unhappy customer headed his way.

“There are a lot of places you can go and drop off your car, and when you come back they’ve got your transmission in a million pieces and it’s like they have a gun at your back telling you that you owe them a million dollars or you won’t get your car. I don’t like to do business that way.”

And he doesn’t. From his business on Middle Creek and his new site at the corner of Main Street and Forks of the River Parkway, Owen and Power Max Transmissions offer customers several choices to solve a transmission or vehicle problem. Most Customers get five different estimates, from straight repairs with new parts to updates and modifications with a lifetime warranty, to a set amount to fix the problem. Customers are told all of those options and they choose the one that best fits their needs and budgets.

Owen has worked around cars most of his life. He began building transmissions in a garage after he life his last employer. Soon he started selling his transmissions through the Internet. Then he rented a corner garage behind Smoky Mountain Floor Covering, painted bright red and stared building his transmissions there. The place got so covered up in work he had to rent a nearby parking lot for storage.

After two or three years of work that way, he learned through a friend about a building on Middle Creek. It would be an expensive step up from what he had, a financial risk - as he puts it, a leap of faith. But he did it about six years ago.

“It was the best thing I’ve ever done,” Owen said.  “Since we moved here we’ve grown by leaps and bounds.”
A representative of the Better Business Bureau dropped by one day to look the place over. “You wouldn’t believe how many hits you had on our Web site,” the BBB representative told Owen. While many businesses may get five or six inquiries from people seeking the reputation and history of that business, Power Max Transmissions was getting 30 or more - top among BBB hits. What those persons find in their inquiries is a spotless record by Power Max Transmissions. The business is virtually complaint-free.”

Owen and his staff go out of the way to assist people. One owner of a 40-foot motor home waged a year-long fight with the holder of the vehicle’s warranty company to pay for repairs. Owen filed the paper work and assisted in that fight, and last December the vehicle owner was rewarded with a check for $10,500 to pay for the repairs.

Power Max Transmissions will pick up a customer or his vehicle and drive the vehicle r customer back to their destination. They even will take a customer’s vehicle to a dealer to get repairs still under warranty - at no charge to the customer.

Last year they added a second location, taking over the transmission shop across from the jail and next to Ownby Hardware. The original location at 210 Middle Creek now handles general auto repair. The shop on Main Street across from the jail does the transmission work.

He added general mechanical work after customers asked him to do such things as fix brakes.

The mechanics he hired also take old cars Owen buys, cars with lots of problems , repairs them and then sells them. That keeps the mechanics busy during the few slow times.

“By the grace of God we’ve done well,” Owen said.  “Sometimes I feel like that deer in the cartoons, with his feet and heels dug in front of him. We’ll keep pushing and keep serving our customers.”

The staff includes Ray Lavellee, manager; Mike Stevens, motor diagnostician and transmission engineer; Larry Whaley, certified brake and general auto repair technician; and Mark Hill, general calibration technician.