A while ago, returning from Baja, I sat at the border for >1 hour and melted the brake light housings. Not wanting this to happen to my new housings, I replaced the standard incandescent lights with LED replacements. The replacements are about the same brightness, but not as well focused towards the rear.
Overall I'd rate them as 80% as good as the originals. They definitely won't get hot enough to do damage. One definite plus is that the brake lights come on ~200ms faster, which equates to about one car length at 65mph.
Unfortunately, the change over isn't quite as simple as just replacing the bulbs.
Brake lights: The ECU monitors the brake line to see if you might be stepping on the brake. That circuit expects to see an incandescent bulb. If you replace all three brake lights your engine will buck and flatspot like you just ran out of fuel. Many of the LED vendors offer "no error" versions that fix the problems for more modern vehicles. These didn't help. What needs to be done is to attach a small incandescent bulb into the circuit. A dash bulb will work, even a 24v bulb will work (it won't light up and it will last forever). I tucked the bulb into the center brake light in the back door.
Turn signals: If you want to go further and replace the turn signals, you'll find the same sort of problem. Replacing even one bulb will get you "hyper flash", where the turn signals will flash at double speed. The "no error" LED versions might fix this. Given that I had the LEDs already in hand, I decided to replace the flasher relay. Unfortunately, no one makes a LED-ready version of the W463 flasher relay. So, here is how to fix your own:
Open the flasher relay. Unsolder the current sense resistor (0.02 ohm) and replace with a 0.06 ohm resistor. The modified relay will work both LED and incandescent bulbs in any combination. Tape the old resistor onto the relay just in case you want to go back. Side benefit: your turn signal switch will last forever.