We traded my wife's ES330 (2005) a couple of months ago with 45000 miles on it and the brakes showed no signs of needing replacement. Most brakes now have a wear indicator (a wire that rubs on the rotor and makes a skreeching sound) which will warn of brakes needing replacement. As a matter of fact, we put about 100,000 miles,on her 2000 ES300 and were still on the original pads, both front and rear. And yes, we do stop by using the brakes - not just by running into things.
dave t