Brakes: OEM vs After market?

[tst1212]

I have a 2011 Tahoe Z71, with 40K mostly city miles. I'm still on the original brakes, which is amazing to me given the way I drive, and the fact I came from a Land Rover D2 which had to replace pads and rotors every 20k.

So my question is, are after market really that much better than what I already consider to be really good?

 

[sumo]

Well that’s kinda hard. Although you pretty much answered your question though. Brake pads are like tires. Everyone’s driving habits are different from everyone else’s. There’s different applications to suit different needs, performance, towing, daily driving, long life. But each sets of pads are made differently. Not everyone’s opinion is going to be the same. If you’re happy with oem and feel no need to change then so be it. One thing I highly recommend though is replacing your stock oem rubber hoses at the calipers to stainless steel lines.
Personally I went with slotted rotors with a performance set of pads and steel lines. I have great braking power with no brake pedal fade but on the down side, I get a lot more brake dust due to the slotted rotors and I get a slight brake squeal from the pads under light braking.