17 years old, 80,000 miles Baer Eradispeed +2 Two piece rotors with aluminum hats and aircraft fasteners and AC Delco semi metallic carbon ferrous compound.

 

For braking just once, this is correct. The real benefit of upgraded pads is that they can handle higher heat better - though if you go too far in that direction, you'll get ones that handle lower heat worse (ie, your first stop is gonna be a little scary.) If you plan to ride your brakes down a mountain, or drive hard through twisties, then a brake pad that can deal with higher temperatures is good insurance. In other words, for braking hard multiple times, a different brake pad compound will be better than stock-style; for braking once, it really doesn't matter.

I am still not 100% sold on whether stainless steel brake lines are actually all that much better for brake feel ... with that said, I installed 'em with my BBK because, yknow, they were in the kit, and they look nice. No harm, why not go for it.

But also yeah, a more aggressive brake pad can make it feel like you're braking harder ... by helping you grab harder with less brake pedal engagement.

This highly depends on your personal preferences, but I abhor a grabby brake setup on a street car. Now, most street cars with a grabby setup seem to have one due to an over-boosted brake booster, and it's done to make cars stop harder at low speeds, and seems to be extremely common amongst econoboxes (when I rent cars, I rent cheap.) But you can get a similarly grabby effect from grabby brake pads. For street use, I want to be able to use the full (or most of the full) brake pedal travel usefully, I don't want to have 80% brake force at 10% brake pedal travel. Your mileage may vary, of course, we all have preferences.

I also agree with one of our vendors - this is a "kit" only in that it comes with all four rotors and all eight brake pads as a "kit," not that it is in any serious way an upgrade or improvement over stock.

PS: Remember to grease your caliper slide pins! People constantly forget to do this.