Ive got pirelli's on mine, cant remember the exact model but they have been spot on. I changed up a size to 235/70/16 if I remember rightly. Slightly larger footprint and rolling radius to help with the fuel consumption. Far better than the Falkens they were on previous and the kumhos that I had on my grand vitara.

Kumhos in general are fantastic tyres for the money and only their Korean manufactures stops them from being regarded (and priced) as a premium product. (it could be said the same is now true of Korean cars!) Take a look at the user reviews on Black Circles for more info.

On the subject of the perishing - I wouldn't have thought that this was necessarily grounds for immediate replacement. The structural integrity of a tyre comes from the casing, not the rubber that is glued to it. However, cracking of the sidewall rubber could be indicative of an underlying condition with the tyre's structure. Prolonged running underinflated will do this.

Whatever rubber you end up with if you do change, maybe you'd consider rotating the tyres front to back to even out the wear so that you can have newer tyres all round at shorter intervals rather than being left with 2 that are aged but with plenty of tread?