diff --git a/sql_server/pyodbc/base.py b/sql_server/pyodbc/base.py
index c9acdcc5..4b91ff2a 100644
--- a/sql_server/pyodbc/base.py
+++ b/sql_server/pyodbc/base.py
@@ -50,15 +50,15 @@
 
 warnings.filterwarnings('error', 'The DATABASE_ODBC.+ is deprecated', DeprecationWarning, __name__, 0)
 
-collation = 'Latin1_General_CI_AS'
+default_collation = 'Latin1_General_CI_AS'
 if hasattr(settings, 'DATABASE_COLLATION'):
     warnings.warn(
         "The DATABASE_COLLATION setting is going to be deprecated, use DATABASE_OPTIONS['collation'] instead.",
         DeprecationWarning
     )
-    collation = settings.DATABASE_COLLATION
+    default_collation = settings.DATABASE_COLLATION
 elif hasattr(settings, 'DATABASE_OPTIONS') and 'collation' in settings.DATABASE_OPTIONS:
-    collation = settings.DATABASE_OPTIONS['collation']
+    default_collation = settings.DATABASE_OPTIONS['collation']
 
 deprecated = (
     ('DATABASE_ODBC_DRIVER', 'driver'),
@@ -91,39 +91,6 @@ class DatabaseWrapper(BaseDatabaseWrapper):
     unicode_results = False
     datefirst = 7
 
-    # Collations:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms184391.aspx
-    #                   http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179886.aspx
-    # T-SQL LIKE:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179859.aspx
-    # Full-Text search: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms142571.aspx
-    #   CONTAINS:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187787.aspx
-    #   FREETEXT:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176078.aspx
-
-    operators = {
-        # Since '=' is used not only for string comparision there is no way
-        # to make it case (in)sensitive. It will simply fallback to the
-        # database collation.
-        'exact': '= %s',
-        'iexact': "= UPPER(%s)",
-        'contains': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + collation,
-        'icontains': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE "+ collation,
-        'gt': '> %s',
-        'gte': '>= %s',
-        'lt': '< %s',
-        'lte': '<= %s',
-        'startswith': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + collation,
-        'endswith': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + collation,
-        'istartswith': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + collation,
-        'iendswith': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + collation,
-
-        # TODO: remove, keep native T-SQL LIKE wildcards support
-        # or use a "compatibility layer" and replace '*' with '%'
-        # and '.' with '_'
-        'regex': 'LIKE %s COLLATE ' + collation,
-        'iregex': 'LIKE %s COLLATE ' + collation,
-
-        # TODO: freetext, full-text contains...
-    }
-
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         super(DatabaseWrapper, self).__init__(*args, **kwargs)
 
@@ -220,6 +187,9 @@ def _cursor(self):
                 else:
                     cstr_parts.append('SERVERNAME=%s' % host_str)
 
+            self.collation = options.get('collation', default_collation)
+            self.client_encoding = options.get('client_encoding', 'utf-8')
+
             if user_str:
                 cstr_parts.append('UID=%s;PWD=%s' % (user_str, passwd_str))
             else:
@@ -277,7 +247,41 @@ def _cursor(self):
             if self.drv_name.startswith('LIBTDSODBC') and not self.connection.autocommit:
                 self.connection.commit()
 
-        return CursorWrapper(cursor, self.driver_needs_utf8)
+        return CursorWrapper(cursor, self.driver_needs_utf8, self.client_encoding)
+
+    # Collations:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms184391.aspx
+    #                   http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179886.aspx
+    # T-SQL LIKE:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms179859.aspx
+    # Full-Text search: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms142571.aspx
+    #   CONTAINS:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187787.aspx
+    #   FREETEXT:       http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms176078.aspx
+    @property
+    def operators(self):
+        return {
+        # Since '=' is used not only for string comparision there is no way
+        # to make it case (in)sensitive. It will simply fallback to the
+        # database collation.
+        'exact': '= %s',
+        'iexact': "= UPPER(%s)",
+        'contains': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + self.collation,
+        'icontains': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE "+ self.collation,
+        'gt': '> %s',
+        'gte': '>= %s',
+        'lt': '< %s',
+        'lte': '<= %s',
+        'startswith': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + self.collation,
+        'endswith': "LIKE %s ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + self.collation,
+        'istartswith': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + self.collation,
+        'iendswith': "LIKE UPPER(%s) ESCAPE '\\' COLLATE " + self.collation,
+
+        # TODO: remove, keep native T-SQL LIKE wildcards support
+        # or use a "compatibility layer" and replace '*' with '%'
+        # and '.' with '_'
+        'regex': 'LIKE %s COLLATE ' + self.collation,
+        'iregex': 'LIKE %s COLLATE ' + self.collation,
+
+        # TODO: freetext, full-text contains...
+    }
 
 
 class CursorWrapper(object):
@@ -285,9 +289,10 @@ class CursorWrapper(object):
     A wrapper around the pyodbc's cursor that takes in account a) some pyodbc
     DB-API 2.0 implementation and b) some common ODBC driver particularities.
     """
-    def __init__(self, cursor, driver_needs_utf8):
+    def __init__(self, cursor, driver_needs_utf8, client_encoding):
         self.cursor = cursor
         self.driver_needs_utf8 = driver_needs_utf8
+        self.client_encoding = client_encoding
         self.last_sql = ''
         self.last_params = ()
 
@@ -358,7 +363,7 @@ def format_row(self, row):
         (pyodbc Rows are not sliceable).
         """
 
-        if not self.driver_needs_utf8:
+        if not self.driver_needs_utf8 and self.client_encoding == 'utf-8':
             return tuple(row)
 
         # FreeTDS (and other ODBC drivers?) doesn't support Unicode
@@ -366,7 +371,7 @@ def format_row(self, row):
         out = []
         for f in row:
             if isinstance(f, str):
-                out.append(f.decode('utf-8'))
+                out.append(f.decode(self.client_encoding))
             else:
                 out.append(f)