a friend who does a lot of work for one man who has a 2001 saturn, replaced the brake pads 3 times at 20,000 intervals finally had him get a set of oem, saturn brake pads and the man hasnt had to replace them yet, going on 50,000 miles and going strong. the first set of origanals lasted over 50k so there is some truth that factory parts are better i guess.
by the way that saturn has over 300k on it and running strong, the guy maintains this car perfectly. so do your mantainance and hope for the best.