I switched mine after about 5K miles. It's true that the low dust pads do not perform as well, but the difference is minor and you would have to be doing some long hard breaking to tell the difference. I drive somewhat aggressively at times at the drop in performance was insignificant. The cleanliness of my car is another story. There is a huge difference between the dust generated in the two pads. Wheels will stay clean with the low dust pads. There is some squeaking that will come from the low dust pads. That's the trade-off. With the stock pads you get ultra performance but lots of dust and short pad life. With the low dust pads you get little to no dust, quite a bit of noise and much, much better pad life.