Well fellows, my experience with Powerrex is has been nothing but positive. I've been involved with catering to some high end residential garages around the Philadelphia area. Often times we install lifts into these home garages. I do not get involved with commercial installes because the market is so cut-throat.
As with many lift companies, Powerrex began when some engineers from an older German lift company left to start thier own. You can check them out here
http://www.powerrex.com.au/ and clicking at the photo album will give you some perspective.
Yes, the SL series lifts from Complete are made by Powerrex and private labled for Complete. Complete lifts have evolved over time to what it is today. The ones sold by Complete are not listed on the Powerrex web site. There was acually some issue at one time since the price that Complete sells them are far below the International market. Regardles of the political issues, you can't argue with a fellow who moves 200 units a month!
The Powerrex lift he sells is still a great one. Again, the arms are one of it's stong points. I have not installed any of the 12k lifts, but suspect that the front arm is not a 3 stage arm like the 10k. I think the 10k is a better lift for most people becaue the arm configuration is so flexable. Mayby you could ask Complete if they could exchange the front arms off the 12k for the ones on the 10k. This would give you the best of both worlds!
Yes, the safty latches are different on the OH vs the BP. I like the BP version, since they use a solonoid. The OH uses a more simplistic mecahnical latch. You could hold the OH latch handle as the lift rises to avoid the noise, but it's a non-issue for me.