I just bought my first PC setup, and it hasn't even arrived in the mail yet. I'm new at this so my opinion is likely worthless!!! BUT, I've done an excessive amount of reading on various forums, and it seems the most popular pads are the
lake country CCS pads. I had a tough time deciding between
menzerna polishes and optimum polishes, but in the end went with optimum; I felt like I got more bang for the buck.
I purchased:
Porter Cable 7424 & Foam Pad Kit - Car Buffer and
Optimum Detailing Kit:This kit contains the optimum products for swirl removal & paint protection!
which came out to $280, just over your budget.
I'm pretty sure I went overboard, but I wanted a few extra pads around in case I screwed one up or dropped one on concrete or something dumb like I usually do. I also wanted to get everything at once, and figured this had me covered.
There may be something else that is better for your car and its condition, but this was what I decided on for an '06 audi a3