I have noticed the brakes on my face lift VRS TDI are incredibly vague. Press the pedal, not a lot happens. It could potentially be poor quality pads / glazed as there is plenty of meat on them. The car had new front discs and pads in 2023, the disks look fine.

The car had a brake fluid change in December at a VW specialist.

What would be a decent pad to upgrade to?

Check the vaaccum hoses to servo. My sons had cracked and his brakes were really poor. He said that not a lot happened when he braked. I taped up the pipes on a temp basis and made a big improvement. It could also be sticky pistons/calipers

I’ll double check those. It passed an MOT in November and the brakes were exactly the same then.

No evidence the fluid had been changed since 2015 so when it went in for its service, I got them to do the fluid too.

Unfortunately, no improvement.

The MOT may not have picked up a bad/leaking servo/hose. As long as the brakes are equal and upto a certain standard it would pass. A check I used to do was pump brakes until firm then start engine. If pedal drops slightly more then servo working. No guarantee that the servo is perfect but at least some vaccum.

As far as brake pads go I have been using Apec for the last couple of years. So far they have been good and work well. Think they do different grades for different driving style. Have a look at Apec red and Apec black.

https://apecautomotive.co.uk/pads/

Alasdair