RichBinAZ

I'm pretty sure the OEM pads / shoes rotors and drums were nothing special, so putting ceramic / sintered / or whatever pads on would be considered an upgrade.

There are a lot of different vendors out there so the market place is fairly competitive
Check out this link - added for example only - click brake pad and you will be asking which one???
2006 SCION XB 1.5L L4 Brake & Wheel Hub Parts | RockAuto
The little heart shape is supposed to indicate the most popular ones sold, but does it really?? Are they just pushing the ones they want to move?? Hard to know.

Some of the automotive stores offer a lifetime warrantee on the pads, and it does work, I have used that at autozone, but their prices are higher initially to compensate for warrantee cost.

Some of the higher performing pads give you greater braking power at the cost of faster disc wear, or wear on both parts so you have to decide on life or performance.

Fortunately the cost of new discs or drums is not that bad compared to motorcycle discs, that only come with 1/2mm wear of usable surface and cost around $200 each to replace - been there - so I tend toward less abrasive pads so the discs last longer. The pads don't come cheap either!!

The point is, you will eventually make a decision and it will be the right one for you. Then everyone will say you were wrong, just ignore them. You will find out what works and what doesn't and there is no real shortcut for personal experience.

Decendant04

RichBinAZ,

thank you so much for the detailed message! I really appreciate it. I did go ahead and get some ceramic pad and my coworker and I are going to put them on soon and see how it goes. I did find out from my local Toyota dealer that the OEM pads were some sort of organics pads. Because of the difference in material I may need to replace the rotors as well, but we’ll see if that needs to happen after we install the pads.

I just got this xB so I am learning as I go.