The brakes on my VW lasted so long that I called all the shops I’d been to see if they had a record of me buying new pads. The last guy said they were aftermark

The brakes on my VW lasted so long that I called all the shops I’d been to see if they had a record of me buying new pads. The last guy said they were aftermarket, so I don't know if there’s a shop I forgot or may have accidentally gotten new pads because someone read a work order wrong. But they still last a long time because the DSGs of that era used engine braking and lots of gears to get better gas mileage than the manual version. Which was rare up to that point. Manual almost always got you better mileage than the automatic. Engine braking saves you a ton because the brakes wear out faster the harder you brake. I don’t recall if it’s just the pressure or if it’s the heat. Now he did tell me the aftermarket’s don’t have copper sinters in them, which is how he clocked them as replacements. Sometime after I bought my car they banned copper in brake pads due to metal pollution.