Agreed. Some would also argue that drums are easier to maintain, the normal rear disc calipers have been known to give trouble if they're not looked after. And even when they're working they need a dedicated windback tool to replace the pads. Drums might seem 'old school', but they're very reliable and easy to work on.
You'll get much bigger gains from a front disc upgrade.
One thing about rear drum brakes is, in my past experience, and the present experience of my daughter with
Ibiza 1.4 SC, is rear drum brakes are fine until either you or the
garage ignore them, so they only ever get looked at after they fail - and they will. First failure is typically the old
problem that they seize on after the car has been left unused for a week or so in wet conditions. In my daughter's case it needed the AA with a large hammer, her previous
Ibiza 1.4 also did that. Eventually when she went abroad for a month, I took the drums off and found the shoe linings had fractured, new set of shoes cost a lot more than a set of rear pads. Now I know that these cars don't need extra rear braking, but, my wife has a Polo 9N 1.4 SE - with rear discs, and its very easy to
service them every year and keep them working. I'm always worried with rear drums, in as much that you might have a big
problem retracting the shoes to get the drums off, with the added bonus with some cars that the rear bearing gets wrecked when forcing the drum off. I'll still be looking for rear discs brakes when my wife's car gets replaced - but only for ease of
servicing.
