Brake pads Mintex or OEM Mercedes

I recently got a pair of pretty rusty 325 calipers for £50 (mine are the smaller ones from a 316) and sandblasted them back to clean metal. Then painted with high temp paint and rebuild kit £30 (pistons, seals, guide pins, bleed valves etc). I was pretty happy with the result which cost me around £100 for the pair. I then went with mintex discs and pads and a full set of braided brake lines my mate had. Full refurb prolly cost me £300 and are significantly better than they were but I don't think they will be as good as a 4 pot setup.

I’ve always used Zimmerman rotors and Mintex pads, and have yet to find a better combo. I’ve tried Brembo, Stoptech, Bosch, but nothing has pleased me like Mintex [pedal feel, stopping power, no noise, very low dust [especially when used on drilled rotors]].

Mercedes has always had great brakes but until the 190E you didn't have many cheap upgrade options. I have E420 brakes on my 190E Sportline, and my god the stopping power is exceptional.

I did Redbox pads on my B5.5 Passat with 312 rotors, and I loved them. I skimped out when I first did the upgrade and went with CARQUEST pads and absolutely hated them. Maybe that's why I liked the Redbox so much....

Mintex Redbox are always on my list for Daily Driver pads on VWs. I just started into my 3rd set on my 180k wagon. In contrast, the Mintex are linear, fairly quiet, wear well, are easy on rotors, low dust and can tolerate a bit of spirited driving.

Fantastic engine & brakes. I think they're very good looking cars, too. Mine bit me hard though, and I'd never own another.

Mintex is a step below the OEM Jurid/ATE/TRW pads in terms of friction coefficient. Mintex is an upgrade when it comes to dust. Right now, running Akebono Euro Ceramics... I won't come to my verdict until winter.

I have some noise from the mintex pads as well. Im switching them all out soon.

Might I share an experience with my Mercedes Warranty Service: It was my last "scheduled" maintenace on my Benz before my warranty expired in a month... This is what my service rep told me behind closed doors...."We better schedule in as many repairs as possible" 4 new break pads and 2 new rotars for the front (even though they still had a few more thousand mile on them), replacement wood trims for 2 of the door panels, new wiper blades and arm, a whole new radio system b/c the tape player broke (even though I've put probably only 2 tapes into the bay for the 4 years I owned the car); a brand new driver seat b/c one of the heating element on the car seat would not power on (I live in Florida, rarely ever used it).....

You wanna avoid mintex red box these days. The passat pads have a slight problem with burning up under hard braking.