Two years ago, at the end of a dealer service on my car, the repair guy added the advice that I’d need my brakes replaced soon. This annoyed the hell out of me, because if he’d said so just a little while before, I could have had them take care of it and not need to spend another weekend morning at the shop. But sure enough, within two weeks, my brakes started feeling very weird. I took it in to NTB, they told me I had no pad left at all, and I got it fixed there. I remember it well thanks to the annoyance of it all.

So earlier this week when my brakes felt a bit squishy, I recalled that it had been two years ago that they were last replaced, and that the first set had lasted two years. Although I was sure it was probably just the wet weather, it seemed like a good reminder that it was time to get them checked again. Given that it’s a lovely day to be out and about, and that I was working from “home”, I ran over to a local brake place and just told them they were probably due for replacing. They had the car up on stilts within about ten minutes, and the guy was back inside shortly after with the diagnosis.

“When did you say you last had these replaced? Because they look brand new.”

Errr. What? Two years of hard start/stop downtown Atlanta commuting, with plenty of emergency brake-slammage, and they’re like new? Not even borderline enough for the brake place to call it close enough and do the work anyway? I guess NTB used a higher quality/more expensive pads than were needed. Can’t complain.