I'm surprised to read that the car in question needs pads at only 30K miles. Driving my '01 C320, I make no particular effort to conserve brakes or tires and yet my original pads finally needed replacement this summer at 40K miles and all four wheels were worn evenly. I didn't change the discs because they had only a small ridge.

My two 201s needed front pads every 14K miles and rears at 27K. I changed the front discs on the '89 at about 49K miles. The W202 '95 C280 wore it's rears out first at 30K miles with the fronts a bit later. Increasing disc diameter and enlarging the pads has done wonders for brake life. And, the C32 brakes are even larger.

Changing the rear pads on a current C-Class takes no more than five minutes per side once the wheels are off since the caliper design is different with only one cross pin. Of the four pads on the rear, only one has a wear sensor and it's on the inside right pad.

The fronts have sensors on both sides..

Since my car was delivered in April 2001, it's already had two fluid changes.

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Roger E.