I guess I am being self-centered by not just adding to the existing thread, but I wanna be sure I'm heard!!!

OK, at 20,000 miles, my 2009 LS460 AWD is gonna need brakes (and rotors?) soon. This is Pittsburgh and 20K out of ANY brakes is excellent. That being said, it's not clear what you guys are suggesting. Is there something better than stock pads and rotors for the "around town" driver like me? My main concern is I want stuff THAT WILL LAST. I don't care about going from 130MPH to zero in 3 seconds. I DO care that stopping time is not LESS than the manufacturer originally engineered. I used the link provided on the other site and it seemed to only provide FRONT pads/rotors for my 2009 AWD car. What about the rears? I suspect I did something wrong on the site or the site was not working properly. And if I buy pads and rotors from them or other online vendor, how much can I expect a good independent mechanic to charge to install them (understanding that they don't get to make the markup they would if I bot the parts from them).

??

Thank you all in advance for the brake advice.

If you want something that lasts, then ceramic pads is the way to go.

But ceramic pads won't go with the stock rotors. Otherwise they will erode and will be gone in no time, or at least this is what I heard. So you need good rotors with the ceramic pads.

When I was doing research for my purchase decision, I found out that there was a huge price variation. Brembo and the other high-end vendors would have cost me more than $10,000. Then on the low-end, I didn't find many vendors that manufacture brake sets that fit the LS460 for the $500 price range so the options weren't that many but they existed.

I guess you're referring to brakeperformance.com that are oferring only front rotors/ceramic pads for your AWD LS460. You're right. But you may talk to them and see if they can do something about it. They have good customer service. Now whether it will outlast the stock rotors is something I need test myself and I'm not there yet.

Good luck.

$10 grand for brakes? I don't think so. So far none of this passes the "don't fool with OEM" smell test.