I have some hard numbers to share with all of you from today. I did a pad inspection on my vehicle with 18K miles. Here are the results.
Driver's side outer measured thickness 0.265"
Driver's side inner measured thickness 0.250"
Squeal warning tab measured 0.100"
New Hawk HPS measured 0.375"
My conclusion is that your dealers are either unfamiliar with how to measure pad wear on these pads, want to take your money, or you have not babies the car as much as you lead on. I am only 1/3 through the total pad thickness and my guess would be I could carry these pads out to 30K no problem. I drive my car pretty hard, I did not get to the track this year but I would anticipate track driving would wear these out at a higher rate. The brake inspection took only 30-40 minutes, these pads slide right out, one nut, two spring pins and a little pressure on the pistons to free them up.
I had expected more wear and I was going to swap in my hawk HPS, but I think I will do new rotors at the same time and let these runout a little more. I am pretty picky about proper bed-in and would prefer a fresh surface to evauate the new pad compound. Here are the pics.