Brake pads OEM Subaru or OEM BMW

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.

My local dealer has the “value service” pricing on BMW USA’s website, front rotors/pads/sensors on an 18 330 x drive for $419.95 front and $435.95 rear.

I installed R56 front brakes.

M3 stock brakes are better, the GTI gets a little tail-happy under hard braking above 110-130mph.

Seems like there would be room in the market for a slightly detuned S55 base model without the fancy seats, brakes and wheels for about $5-8k less like the M3/M4: M3/M4 Competition.

I really love driving it though, particularly the brakes and the handling.

My local Bavarian car specialist refuses to install ceramic pads and will only do OEM due to low performance in the cold and increased wear on rotors. I was looking forward to less brake dust, especially on the front, but I live on top of one of the steepest hills in the city. I now have OEM pads.

The brakes. Looks all OE. The dust is unbelievable awful.

And jesus christ. $600 for rear pads and rotors? the the parts are like $250 and labor shouldn't be over $200...