Brake pads Ferodo or OEM Volkswagen

Big fan of engine breaking... In my 03 GLI I ended up selling her at 160,000...replaced rear brake pads once, and never the fronts... Clutch was still tight and never any problems.

stock mk4 brakes will clear

I ran with Ferodo DS2500s. They work incredibly well for light track use (my street tires overheat before the brakes ever fade), they are dead silent, and, somehow, very low dust. They are more expensive than most other pads though and probably excessive for most people in their capabilities.

I cant say that the CC brakes are small or bad really?! As being 345mm on the front and 310mm on the rear they are stopping the car really good actually.

Car drives great-- the new brake / pad combination gives it a firmer pedal feel than the stock setup (which I found pretty soft/grabby in comparison). It's not Porsche-firm but its world's better than the stock setup-- for comparison it's much lighter than the pedal in something like a Porsche 993, but quite a bit firmer / less grabby than the stock setup on recent BMWs. I greatly prefer the firmer feel to the stock setup, as I find it more confidence-inspiring and it makes for much easier heel/toe downshifting.

I bought a VR6 4Motion wagon for my mom 4 years ago, and it's still running great. The brakes are a bit overboosted, and are very grabby, but once you get used to it, it's actually not bad at all.

Phaeton brake pads have a sensor attached that when pads have worn sufficiently thin, the sensor will wear through and provide the brake warning light to illuminate. The warning means that you need to replace the pads in the near future.

Rear brake pads replaced at 42k.

Pay attention to the brakes. For what it is worth ... I have a 2010 Routan SE which has been great except for the brakes. I bought the car new and the brakes it came with (rear) lasted 17,000 mi.

My front pads were noisy, kept the front wheels covered in dust and suffered from crystallisation due to severe driving conditions (temperature, humidity and slopes). The noise began at 1500mi and now at 6800mi it is so loud that it can be heard from 60ft away.