Brake pads R1 Concepts or OEM Volkswagen

I used the R1 concepts drilled and slotted kit with pads. Front and rear total was like 500 bucks. Did it myself. They work great.

They seem good so far. I'm not very handy and I was able to put them on pretty easily.

Over the weekend I finally got the brakes to cooperate, so it's just about time to get a few test runs in.

I did our Atlas rear brakes without a scan tool.

I have done the all the brakes on our 19 Atlas myself. Like previously stated fronts are straight forward and easy.

Pros: they fit perfectly, offer great performance and are cool enough to work on immediately after driving. Con: they sent the brakes for the electric parking brake when I have the cable parking brake. They have been 0 help in providing the bracket to adapt it to the cable break.

I've had mine for like 60k miles. 87k ish on the clock. Just changed everything. Yearly inspection and the shop rejected it for brakes. Brake installer said the weren't that bad. I bought an R1 Concepts kit. Front and rear rotors plus pads all around. $220 shipped on Walmart+ (also found on Amazon or Rock Auto). The shop had a brakes special: $160 installed for new pads. Since I had the parts and rotors take like 30 seconds to swap out, they charged me for two brake installs at $150 each. So all in installed was like $550 after taxes.For reference: the shop that rejected it quoted something like $500 for the front and $500 for the rear. And I don't think it was all new everything.

My front brake rotors warped at ~12K miles. I had them machined and they lasted about another 12k until I replaced them with aftermarket Centric. Those lasted ~12K miles until they warped. At this time I went back to VW OEM rotors and they lasted ~12k miles. I had the OEM's machined, but now they are warped again. Along the way I tried some aftermarket pads, and generally had problems I purchased a pair at NAPA and they were sloppy in the caliper and would shift and click when applying the brakes in reverse. Went back to OEM on the pads and have no problems.

I have 4,800 miles on a 2023 MK8 and my brake pads are sticking to the rotors.

I’m not a mechanic by any means (I do try to work on my car myself for what I can fix and know how to do) but I’m gonna throw my own car under the bus and say VW. Why tf do I need specialized tools, and why do barely any after market parts fit my car?