You do need a winter coat for sure, but definitely a variety of coats/vests. A vest would be fine for quickly going from the car/to the store. If you run warm, a floor-length down jacket on a 55 degree day will be torture. I see people wearing very heavy down jackets and scarves/hats/mittens when it's 55 and all I can think is how much they must smell lol. I recommend a couple of winter coats in different degrees of warmth. I wear a fleece jacket most of the time (with a hat and gloves) and it does fine for most weather. Again, I am not doing winter camping/outdoor sports and I don't wear it when it's 20 degrees. If you are a very outdoorsy person you will need much different gear.