Old thread, yes, but I hafta rant.
I am waiting for the day that the 'drum brakes are good enough' philosophy will be gone. What was good enough in 1970, when most cars had drum brakes, ain't good enough for today. There are very few shops that truly know how to optimize drum brakes (like arcing the shoes to match the drums?), so they won't be as good as they were back in the day. Bigrigs in the 60s-70s didn't always have brakes on the front axle, would we say that is good enough?
And the bigger problem - EVERYTHING nowadays has better braking than our old cars, and drivers are more distracted than ever, therefore using their brakes more abruptly. Modern cars don't nose-dive under hard braking, so there's another visual cue we don't get. The CHMSL that was originally up high where it was useful is now only inches above the regular lites and of limited use. And I'll go so far as to say that kids don't get whipped for running into the street anymore, so there's that too.
All of that adds up to increased liklihood that *someone else* will cause *you* an accident, no matter how cautious you are. The odds are stacking against us, no matter what we choose to believe.
So if someone wants to convert to better brakes, please don't talk them out of it!!!!!