I have had good luck with mine.

I use white, or yellow pads. They are fairly soft

do a search, one of our members did a very detailed thread on detailing.

As far as price, I get them at a local hardware store for about $5 apiece, They may be cheaper on a site like autogeek.net.

Mike in orange can probably give you lots of info as well.

You would be hard pressed to ruin your paint with the porter cable.