I put the PBR Deluxe on the 855. They work fine. We do not drive that car hard so I have experienced zero fade or extended braking distance. And no noise either, but I always use a thin coating of 50/50 Silglyde and Copaslip on the back of pads for all my cars, and honestly I don't know what brake noise is.
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http://www.fidalgo.net/~brook4/oilslubesfilters.html

Everyone seems to like the stock pads. Personally, I can't wait for them to wear out. I'm sick of the dust. After just 30 miles of driving, the wheels look like a mess. I plan to go with the PBR pads from IPD once these wear out. I have had a good experience with them on my 240. The stock pads on my 240 generated two much heat and I started to get vibrations during a high-speed stop. I pulled those pads early and the problems went away with the PBRs. That was 2 years ago.

-Ted

Many aftermarket pads are noisy and might adversely effect brake stopping distance. My Volvo with OEM pads stops on a dime when needed and I've had a few close calls where if it wasn't for my fast reaction time plus fantastic braking, I would have hit the bozos who crossed into my lane, one w/o looking (panicked over another car in her lane) and another guy had a blowout and spun out just before my car, was very close both times (both last summer).
I won't experiment with any aftermarket pads as OEM are quiet (unless wet braking first time, no big deal), they last a reasonable amount of time IMO and they stop the car better than most other cars I've ever owned, no comparison.

As for the fuss over brake dust, IF you hand wash the car (like me) once in a while, cleaning the wheels too, you'll never see that dust. I'm not even a car was "fanatic" with my Volvo as it's older now and I'm not that fussy about it but my wheels never look half as bad as most of our Volvo customers do and I think it's due to the cars rarely being washed and/or use of automated car washes which never do anything with mag wheels.

I've driven Volvos with aftermarket pads (brands unknown to me) and they're usually noisy and braking isn't as good as how it should be IMO.

My $.02 on it anyway.

Hi Bob,
You have probably seen that the consensus around here is to use OEM brake parts. I'm sure they work great, but I bucked the trend. I put Mintex pads and Zimmerman rotors on the front about two weeks ago. They are quiet, stop great, put off very little dust, and were cheap too. It was super easy to do myself, and I must have saved at least a few hundred $$. The step by step instructions are on bay13, easternaerospace, and in the Haynes manual. I got the parts from www.fcpgroton.com .
Good luck,
Rick