barristan

I have been researching tires for a while now. Living in NH I need something decent in the snow. I am currently driving on Toyo Versados. They have very little tread left.

I decided that I wanted the Continental ExtremeContact DWS. The guy at Town Fair tried to talk me out of them. He says they have to be rotated every 5k miles or they could wear unevenly and become noisy. Plus they are directional so if they do start wearing unevenly you're screwed.
He tried to talk me into a Nexen CP672 or a Mastercraft Strategy. He seemed pretty knowledgeable about tires. He was a very good salesman. I did not do anything yet. Are these decent tires or does TFT have some deal going with these other tire companies? Or are they just trying to get rid of some excess crappy tire inventory?

I want a quite tire that is decent in the snow.