I disagree there. The cheapest I can find new rotors is $60 ea at Advance. I’m fortunate to have an older mechanic in his 70’s who turns mine for $10-$15 ea. I always have them done if I can. The problem nowadays is finding somewhere that still does it. Everyone just wants to sell parts. There’s too many people putting new pads on glazed/gouged/grooved rotors because of this. I have 3 kids and a wife driving. Wife kills brakes. I have to save everywhere I can.
What vehicle is this that the cheapest you can find is $60 at Advance? You are probably buying a Bosch, Raybestos or Bendix, or Wagner rotor. I buy the brakebest or the wearever ones from either Advance or O'Reilly's. I have also use some Duralast from AutoZone. I don't buy their cheap value ones. I get either the Duralast or the wearever or brakebest at O'Reilly's I believe only has one line of rotors. They have select on their pads and they're really not worth paying more for.
I'm not sure what some people expect out of brakes so as to spend more money on them. I don't think you'll get any more miles out of bendix or brand name pads then you will be house Brands I buy. The thing that usually causes you to not get long life out of your brakes is the caliper, Hardware, sliders, piins, brake hoses Etc not being 100% and working properly and causing things to stick, overheat, and wear out prematurely.
Everybody always wants to quickly start talking about it's your safety and your life... I think that's a bunch of bull. There is no reason that you're going to be any safer with some Raybestos pads and rotors on the front of your vehicle than you are with some of the brakebest.
It's just not going to make that much of a difference. If you're going to argue about three or four or five feet in stopping distance then you could also argue to buy a higher performance car with much shorter stopping distance.
I have put both wherever and brakebest on and almost 10,000 pound empty 22 passenger navigator stretch limo and got a full four years out of them before it was time to replace the wearevers. The reason they had to be replaced was due to the rotors were starting to separate from just moisture and corrosion. The replacement ones we're brakebest from O'Reilly's and they lasted almost 6 years. Way, way past the OEM design of the vehicle but still plenty of stopping power and four years for a service vehicle that does a lot of miles is more than acceptable.
