There seems to be confusion between ceramic pads and ceramic rotors here.

 

Wouldn't ceramic pads destroy OEM rotors?

 

Oh wait, we were talking rotors? Sorry, I must have misread. I have no idea if they'll destroy the rotors or not. I'll have to ask.

 

I have about as much need for ceramic brakes as I do for a parachute to help me stop. Seriously they are a racing technology at this point. They are not practical nor are they the best solution for street driving at this stage of development.

Buy a california car duster and wipe your wheels a couple times a week and that will solve your brake dust problem. BMW should include one with every car

 

Ceramic brakes do not need to reach a high temp to operate. Carbon carbon brakes need to be over 300 C to operate. Ceramic brakes have full stopping power at ambient temperatures. Ceramic brakes are made with carbon along with silicon carbide (SiC) for use in the, carbon fibers with a SiC matrix. Carbon brakes and ceramic brakes are two totally different materials

 

Ceramic brakes with the price they have today is totally unnecessary. More and more hybrid cars are sold and those have regenerative braking. All that brakes do after all is releasing heatenergy from the ever more expensive fuel, it's a convertion to heat and that is only bad. If cars are going to need to have ceramic brakes we are going in the wrong direction. Even Formula 1 is possibly going to rewrite the rules to regenerative braking. Mika Salo as mentioned earlier is found to have large amount of the unhealty dust in his lungs. So, why would we want cars that need a great motion to heat conversion like ceramic brakes allows?

 

My uncle had to have rotors replaced on his 545i after little more than 30K Kms. I guess he would have been keen to get ceramic had it been available!