My experience suggests that you can spend an awful lot of time (and money) in trying to achieve a good lawn. But the fact is that unless you are prepared to do the basics every year, (scarify, spike, weed, feed, water etc) then the problems just keep coming back.

There are some modified types of grass seed available, (I guess GM) which are often advertised in mail order catalogues. They are supposed to be tolerant of poor soils and both drought and flood resistant. They do seem to work, but compared to products like Evergreen, they are noticably coarser and if you re-seed a bare patch, you can see the difference.

As ever, a lawn usually reflects the amount of time (and inclination) that an individual is willing to spend on it and if like a lot of people you don't have much of either then the seed I've mentioned above (with the initial preparation) will probably do the trick.