What kind of car? A lot of luxury cars and you may need to replace the rotors also as they are "soft" for better brake feel and performance

NAPA or Wagner semi-metallic pads should be fine unless you’ve got a performance car and you’re racing autocross or going to open track day events at Summit Point.

Just get Bosch.

Ceramic pads will generate less dust at the cost of a sort-of weird brake feel. I put ceramic pads on my BMW and the feel totally changed but the front wheels stayed much cleaner.

Kind of depends what you're after. What kind of vehicle is it, and how do you drive it?

Anonymous wrote:Dumb question here--how do you know when you need new brake pads?

They're designed to start making noise when they get low. Once they make a grinding noise, they're REALLY low and can damage the rotors.

Anonymous wrote:Dumb question here--how do you know when you need new brake pads?

3-4 mm left.

Dumb question here--how do you know when you need new brake pads?

The price difference is typically the material. Ceramic are considered the best but of course are more expensive. Semimetallic are the next step down. There is typically more dust and brake fade with lower quality materials.

I usually just pick a name brand, like Wagner or NAPA's house brand. I prefer ceramic if it isn't too expensive.

This is OP. I called the car parts store and the guy said that some of them come with the hardware and some don't, so that's part of the difference in price. I guess I'll get the middle of the road ones.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Like cars, you can buy the $20K version or the $120K version.

Yes, that much I've figured out. But does it make a difference to the safety or longevity of the brakes, or is it just a waste of money to pay more? The brake pads are called "Silver" "Platinum" "Gold" "Economy" etc so not much info about what difference the price actually makes.

Why don't you provide links what you are looking at? These kinds of things you don't want to go too low/too high. Find something in the middle from respectable manufacturers.

get silver

No one?

Anonymous wrote:Like cars, you can buy the $20K version or the $120K version.

Yes, that much I've figured out. But does it make a difference to the safety or longevity of the brakes, or is it just a waste of money to pay more? The brake pads are called "Silver" "Platinum" "Gold" "Economy" etc so not much info about what difference the price actually makes.

Like cars, you can buy the $20K version or the $120K version.

I'm not a mechanic but I'm ordering parts for my car. How important is the quality of the brake pads? All I have to go by is the price, which varies widely -- from $9 per wheel to $60 per wheel. How much of a difference would that really make in terms of safety or longevity? I usually just have the mechanic put them on and I have no clue. Thanks very much to the shade or real mechanics out there.