Sutherland Diesel gaining steam in Midvale, Idaho

by Philip A. Janquart
 Nobody likes getting ripped off.
 Betty Sutherland, owner of Sutherland Diesel Performance in Midvale, knows the feeling all too well. It’s why, after getting greased by a mechanic while living in California, she started repairing her own vehicles.
 “I started working on cars myself when I was 17,” Sutherland said from her new shop in Midvale.
 The shop, located at 115 N. Railroad St., right off Highway 95, was built just two months ago.
 “I got ripped off once on my old ’68 Mustang, so I just tried it and I fixed my brakes, and I was really happy,” said Sutherland who moved to Midvale from Palmdale, Calif. about 18 months ago. “It was a great feeling and I just kept doing my own work. I loved the feeling of doing it myself.”
 Sutherland started buying her own tools, too, and that’s how she got her start in the automotive industry, building her own business from her home in Palmdale. Things took a turn, however, when she bought a diesel truck.
 “I got a ’99 Dodge with a Cummins in it because I had a fifth wheel that I needed to pull and my old Ford was just screaming up the hills and once I did that, I discovered ATS Diesel Performance out of Denver,” Sutherland said, explaining how she eventually fell into working on diesels. “They do aftermarket performance transmissions, torque converters, turbo chargers, things like that and I was like, ‘how come everyone can climb the hills faster than I can?’”
 Sutherland, 66, was amazed after installing some of ATS’s products.
 “I put an ATS valve body in my truck, a TripleLok torque converter, which is a lower-stall converter, so it makes the truck stand up and want to go better, and it came with a … chip and monitor, so I installed all of that and I couldn’t believe it,” she said. “It was a brand new truck. It was just insane how much better it ran, so I just became addicted.”
 She founded Sutherland Diesel Performance 16 years ago in Palmdale, and eventually became the only certified ATS dealer in California.
 She became disenchanted with the Golden State, however, and following an unnerving visit by the L.A. County Department of Regional Planning, decided to leave for greener pastures.
 “They knew what I was doing for 16 years, and one day they showed up in my backyard in a county van, three unmarked Chevy Silverado’s, and another one in my front yard,” Sutherland explained. “They had guns and bullet proof vests. They came in like they were conducting a drug bust. They wanted me to open up my motorhome so they could take pictures and I said ‘No.’
 “I told them they needed probable cause to come onto my property and they left. They hit me up for unpermitted home business, even though I was registered with the Bureau of Automotive Repair, an unpermitted patio enclosure, and an unpermitted container, and that was the end of it. I couldn’t stay any longer.”
 It took her another year and a half to leave, ultimately finding her way to Midvale where she now operates her business.
Helping her out is Wesley Sawyer and his wife Anann Fryer. Wesley joined Sutherland seven years ago, wanting to learn the business.
 “Wes was probably hungrier to learn than anybody that ever worked for me before,” Sutherland said. “Growing up, he couldn’t afford to have his vehicles fixed, so he did it himself. He knew both ends of a wrench and knew how to make things work. He can think outside of the box, so I taught him everything that I could teach him. He soaked it up and now he is actually better than I am in a lot of cases.”
 Anann takes care of the office, a duty Sutherland said she was happy to relinquish. Now she can focus on her customers. She has since made the couple partners in the business.
 Sutherland built her garage beginning in May, complete with a 14,000-pound lift, and has been open for business since early July. She says things are going great and couldn’t be happier about living in Midvale.
 “I’m never going to retire,” Sutherland said. “I love what I do; they say if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life.”
 For more information, visit www.sutherlanddiesel.com, or call (208) 550-5003.