Brake pads OEM Subaru or GALFER

I’m my 2019 Forester, I hit 70k miles without changing either fronts and rears. The fronts now need to be done. Hard to argue against OEM with that performance.

I was hugely disappointed, because the pads are great. TBH, it's basically a low- to mid-tier race pad, so the price is not that ridiculous. I put quite a few track days on them and after trying out some other aftermarket pads, I actually went back to the OEM pads for 3-season street use.

1st step, better pads for more initial bite and overall stopping power. Galfer HH can be had for $80 front and rear, you can spend a lot more on performance/track pads if you want the best.

I as well just replaced the oem brakes after almost 7 years. Other than a warrantied sensor, I've not had any issues. Still a blast to drive after 7 years, it still feels new.

Galfer Front Brake Pads Brand New not imported to the USA- $110+shipping

The STi also stops hard. It turned in the shorter braking distance of the two cars, using just 114.5 feet of asphalt to haul down from 60 mph. Pedal feel is firm and progressive, and ABS operation is quiet and refined.

Subarus in general are frickin' bulletproof. (WRX transmissions aside) I drove a Subaru Legacy 30th Anniversary Edition (2.5 liter, automatic...I think it's pretty similar to the '97 Legacy GT) and it was a surprisingly good drive...good handling and pretty good power...brakes were a bit sucky, though.

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.

I just switched from OEM (Brembo HH Sintered, I think) pads to Galfer HH Sintered pads. I forgot to scotchbrite the discs and I think I glazed everything up during bedding-in process. I used scotchbrite like mad on the discs and sanded the pads with 220 grit until they were dull like when new, but the brakes seem to have the same behavior - heavy brakes test after 10 mile bed-in ride, the brakes plateau without getting to ABS trigger unless I squeeze like a motherfucker. The previous pads I could stand up on the front wheel with one or two fingers, so I feel like I've done something wrong.

IMHO, the brakes are also awful.