interesting you ask...i just replaced both front and rear brakes to include
rotors, pads, drums, shoes, cylinders, new fluid and hardware.  i bought all
ATE(german) products except front pads which are (Lucas/Girling OME i
believe). The cheapest place for parts are from GAPA.com.  one of the drums
came (brand new mind you) warped, and needed slight turning, which i hated to
do.  anyhow, the new pads had a slight squeak for the first few days and now
all is smooth and braking just fine.  i am satisfied with these brands which
can be found on most vanagon/vw parts vendor catalogues.  also, when you
replace the fronts, take your calipers apart and give them a good cleaning
with some silicon spray/lube/whatever.  i ground out some pretty tough caked
on brake dust.  also cleaned up and lubed all the moving caliper parts and
rubber seals to prevent future dusty squeaky noises.  don't press on the
brake when your caliper is disassembled or it will be messy!!  anyhow, good
luck, have fun.  jeff