Brake pads EBC or Akebono

Yes, they're excellent brakes.

Very little dust. Excellent grip. They do take a few min to warm up when cold/wet but it’s not noticeable at all.

I like EBC greenstuff. No louder than stock, good cold bite, and a little better heat resistance. Good for autocross and street, but they won't hold up on the track. And they don't produce a huge amount of dust, though it is more than oem.

I paid < $250 for brakes/rotors (Akebono ProACT pads + Raybesto Element3 coated rotors).

I’ve used dozens of different pads on VWs and other makes, for regular driving with low dust and massive pad and rotor life? I’d use Akebono, made in USA and no pads are higher quality but some can be equal. Are you running it really hard? You’re gonna be replacing whatever you put on so semi-metallic can't be beat,cheap and has the best feel as well because it wears the rotor and pad together!!! Pagid or Bosch QC are hard as a rock and fade free with great feel but dusty. More importantly you need to do the job correctly, the pad is the least of your worries if you’re new to doing it, find YT brake vids for your car if you are, I still watch them to find my mistakes.

EBC Reds. I would check the rotors though, because if your pads are thin there’s a very good chance the rotors will need replacing too. In which case you may as well go Zimmerman rotors and EBC reds.

I believe if a VW dealer replaced your pads they’d be semi metallic, stop quickly, and have a good amount of brake dust. I went with Akebonos and yes they have a tiny bit less bite. But I have virtually no brake dust and I hear they last a fair bit longer. I’m happy with them

I use my s4 for dd, and use Stoptech cross drilled with Akebono ceramic. The lack of brake dust is unbelievable, and this set up generally gets me tons of miles out of them

I've used Yellowstuff on my E36s at various tracks. They're perfectly ok.

EBC yellow stuff are terrible for track use. Had a set disintegrate and nearly catch fire only like 12 mins into a session.