Brake pads Ferodo or OEM Subaru

I did tons of research and settled on Ferodo DS3.12 (FCP4425G) in front and DS1.11 (FCP4697W) rear with Castrol SRF fluid. Stock R calipers and rotors have held up as well as any aftermarkets I read about for MUCH less $. Zero issues, and cheap.

I've had good results with Ferodo DS2500 pads. More torque than stock, dusting about the same.

I love the Ferodo DS 1.11 that I use on my M4. They're noisy and the dust is epic but they're totally fine to drive to and from the track. I've used them at a few track days at California Speedway, they're wearing really well, and I've never had even the slightest fade.

For \~$250, the Ferodo DS2500's are a great pad for dual street/spirited and light/medium track use.With any semi-metallic pad, you're going to have dust. You can't really substantially reduce dusting without going to something like ceramic pads, which then frictional force is compromised.

The heat resistance is much better than the stock pads, so it'd take a lot more to make these pads fade. They are more durable as well at least according to my experience. The only issues are that when it's cold the pads do get a little noisy and there's the increased brake dust, but I think these are non major issues and worthy of the trade off for much better and reliable braking performance.

I used my stock tires 15k mi + 6 track days + 2 driver skill courses - brake fluid (Motul RBF600) - brake pads (I used Ferodo DS2500 on the fronts)

Cut to 2019 and I added Ferodo Racing 2500 pads to the front and they worked GREAT at NJMSP, still with the EBC rears.

Ferodo DS2500 (street/track)-$290.00

I had an 2017 Outback 2.5, had it since April of 2017 until last week, during that time I put on 93k km on it. I wish I had gotten the 3.6, I got the 2.5 hoping to save fuel, my average was around 25mpg for lifetime, and I drive a lot on hwy and country road, I never once was able to hit the 30mpg even if it's just me in the car and driving 50mph on the country road, this part I really feel like Subaru should correct their mpg reading, in winter it can get as bad as 18mpg in the freezing weather, as when it's cold the transmission will make the engine constantly rev at higher to warm it up, the 2.5 is also not a smooth engine when at idle, I had a vibration issue that was deemed normal. Overall, it's a reliable car, but its not a durable car, another thing is, when taking off quickly from a stop, it can really bog down, most people are used to first gear and just boot, but these CVT don't have first gear and it can be rather unexpected, I've almost got hit from behind a couple times from that. The eyesight is a good feature, the lane departure can be annoying at times but I was ok with it, these cars have an issue with windshield chipping, and if the car has eyesight, the windshield need to be a specific one and then the eyesight needs to be re-calibrated, this happened to me TWICE, and it got expensive very quick. OEM tires are lousy, by lousy I mean it doesn't even get good mpg, doesn't get good grip in ANY condition and puncture easily if you take it to any sort of gravel road, I had puncture the tire within 1200km, I just got some decent A/T tires after, no problem for the last 90k. The brakes are soft, so first thing I did was changed the pads.

How were the brakes? My concern with towing is the brakes. I have not towed anything mainly for this reason. I find the brakes to be a weak point of the car and the rear pads wear out very quickly, on the 2013 version anyway. I am not a heavy footed driver, no fast starts, no slamming of brakes at lights and stop signs. Keep things nice and smooth, no riding of brakes, no fast corners which would engage the rear brakes more due to the vector control system (whatever they call it). Rear brakes wear fast and overall braking is fair. Your thoughts from a trailer perspective? Thx!!!