Brake pads Duralast or OEM Mercedes

Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG. Nothing particularly bad but having a German for it's age, essentially a supercar, and close to 200,000km when I sold it, quite a few bits and pieces needed replacing. Mechanically the best car I ever owned though. Just hoses, sensors, bushes, brake disc's and pads that kind of thing.

I use Dynamic Friction low-metallic 5000 pads, bite better but dust more than OEM, been working well thus far.

I went with Dynamic Friction 5000 low metallic pads and they've been great!

In prepping the car for sale they spend $10,000 on \"all 100k maintenance items and known chronic problems,\" including brake pads and rotors

Sure OEM pads and calipers can stop a loaded truck on the street, but what about when your loaded truck is on a long downhill rough trail? Your brakes get very hot and you can get brake fade and too much heat can damage components, warp rotors, etc (especially after hot brakes meet cool puddle or creek crossing). I went with Dynamic Friction Ultimate Duty pads and I am glad I did because i hit a bunch of those downhill trails the next trip and they got hot, could smell them, but no brake fade and no issues since.

My 2017 is a bone stock daily driver and I have no plans to do any major upgrades or track my car. That being said, I've never had an issue with duralast gold pads and rotors from autozone. Reasonably priced and the pads have a lifetime warranty, meaning you buy them once and can trade the used ones back in for a new set at any time, no questions asked. The rotors have a 3 year warranty and even though mine are only showing some very minor wear, I'm going to take advantage of the warranty and swap them out for a new set in the next few months befor my 3 years is up.

I'm using Dynamic Friction pads from RockAuto and they haven't let me down, grey performance and heat barely affects it.

Lasted through two track days and still have a ton of pad life left.

AutoZone Duralast Ceramics have basically lasted forever. They have a lifetime replacement for free, so I paid like $100 for front pads once, and gotten em free since. Easy DIY.

Only ever used the gold pads but they seem fine, nothing special but not unsafe either.

Just changed brake pads on the S65. Discovered an oil leak, likely from a turbo line.