I'm finally annoyed enough with the brakes on my 300SDL to do something about them, and there seems to be a truly bewildering array of options to choose from regarding pads for these things.

The pads on my car are *AT LEAST* 10 years old, if not older and sat in the weather. I don't know if they degrade with age and exposure, or if they're just cheap pads, but they're getting on my nerves. Constant issues with brake squeal under light braking, and a truly obscene amount of black brake dust on ALL FOUR wheels. The pads have plenty of meat left and the rotors are smooth and healthy. No pulsating pedal, shaking, or other noise under braking other than the squeal. No dragging brakes either, just obscene amounts of dust (and I mean truly ridiculous).

Pads are cheap enough, these need to go. What is a good brand? There are options for different materials too - ceramic, semi-metallic, etc. What are the pros and cons of various types and what's best for a boat like this? Admittedly I'm not well versed on the virtues of brakes, I'm pretty easy on my cars and usually get a very long life out of a set of pads. ~58K on the Honda's factory pads and still LOTS of meat left on those for example.

This isn't a pressing issue, but one I'm slotting in sometime in the somewhat near future - probably this summer.

__________________
Current stable:
1995 E320 157K (Nancy)
1983 500SL 125K (SLoL)

Gone but not forgotten:
1986 300SDL (RIP)
1991 350SD
1991 560SEL
1990 560SEL
1986 500SEL Euro (Rusted to nothing at 47K!)

Gone and wanting to forget:
1985 524TD 167K (TotalDumpster™) [Definitely NOT a Benz]