My Mk 1 is the same. Usually they are fine. Sometimes I touch the brakes and it feels like an emergency stop (always at slow speed), other times the brakes don't feel they are working properly, so I press harder, and suddenly you are back into the emergency stop scenario. I wonder if it is the pad material. My pads were fitted to the car 30,000+ miles ago before I bought it. Could be any make. material or country of origin.