OEM and Aftermarket Brake Pads and Components
OEM automotive parts are what came on your vehicle when it was new, OEM stands for original equipment manufacturer and customers are very confident in these part because they are made by Audi. Automotive manufactures are required to meet many criteria with all of the aspects of their vehicles, and these are the component that they manufactured to meet these requirements. Because of this rigorous testing, you know the quality of the OEM components.
Even though OEM components are easily defined as to what you need, you will need to visit a dealership or authorized re-seller in order to purchase OEM parts, so they are not as universally accessible as aftermarket parts.
Manufacturers put a lot of resources into the development of their OEM components in order to optimize them for the vehicle they are fitted on.
Aftermarket Brake Pads and Replacement Components
Aftermarket components encompass all of the options you can install that are not produced by the original manufacturer of your vehicle. Aftermarkets components are widely available and carried in a variety of automotive parts retailers so they are more widely accessible than OEM parts.
As previously started, there are usually one or a small selection of OEM parts that can meet your needs, aftermarket parts are not as select. There is a gigantic market for aftermarket automotive components, so there are a lot of players out there. It can be overwhelming to shop for aftermarket components because of the large selection of offerings. You will need to know a bit more about your vehicle and what you need in order to find the proper component, making it a more complicated endeavor than shopping for OEM parts.
If you are looking for a specific performance aspect of your brake pad outside of the features on the OEM brake pads as outlined above, there might be a specific aftermarket offering that appeals to you. Aftermarket brake pads are manufactured through a different process than OEM pads to make them more affordable which can give them properties outside of OEM components, like stopping very heavy loads repeatedly more efficiently than OEM parts, but other performance aspects may be compromised.
Due to the variety of aftermarket companies manufacturing parts, there’s also a variety of price points offered as compared to the limited standard OEM offerings each at a single price point. The variety of prices can be appealing to some shoppers on a budget, but the principle of getting what you pay for is very true with aftermarket parts. You probably shouldn’t go with the absolute cheapest brake pads available to stop your vehicle. It's much more common for aftermarket parts to not come with a guarantee to curb costs, though some do offer warranties. A lack of a guarantee makes the possibility of buying faulty parts more worrisome as you would just need to replace them yourself, rather than being covered like an OEM part would be.
Overview
There are both pros and cons to OEM and aftermarket automotive parts, AudiUSAParts recommends and stocks only OEM components. Brake pads are crucial to safe function of your vehicle and OEM parts are tested and guaranteed to be some of the best out there, so they’re a very safe bet. On a related note, when having body work done on your vehicle, always go through OEM parts as no aftermarket parts are crash tested so aftermarket parts could compromise the crash safety of your vehicle.