I live in Wisconsin, and in the wintertime either wear my windbreaker because it's not bulky, or a winter coat, that's uncomfortable in my smart car because it's so puffy.  But sometimes when it's below zero, the windbreaker just won't cut it. ;)

So I was looking for something warmer, but not as bulky as a normal winter jacket.  Something that wouldn't cover me with little white feathers like my heavy coat does (and insanely noticeable because I generally wear black for work).  I saw this on a gold box deal for as close to free as you can get, so grabbed it, figuring no matter how bad it was, I wouldn't be out much money.

I was surprised at the weight - looking at the picture, you can see it's not a bulky coat - yet it feels heavy like one, not in a bad way, but in a "this is going to keep me nice and toasty" way.  It has a nice, soft material inside for the liner.  There's pockets aplenty.  Two at the normal spots, two vertical ones at chest level, one inner pocket on the left side, and an inner sleeve with a velcro flap to shut it on the right, about the size of a cell phone.

Even has a draw string on the bottom to keep that wind from blowing up inside if you want.  It's weirdly positioned in the back though.

It feels great moving around, no binding or anything.

Only downside is the hood - it's about three times as large as it probably should be - the front of it comes down to my nose...  Fortunately I won't be wearing the hood anyway, and it unzips quickly and easily.

Second week in January here I was driving my convertible with the top down, very unusual warm spell for January, then 40 degrees down this week.  In the teens and single digits at night, and the coat has kept me perfectly comfortable.

One of my best gold box finds yet.  Worth a lot more than I paid for it.

Edit: 10 Oct 2012 - I just pulled this from where it was stored all spring and summer, and found the inner pocket, that I think I used once for my iPhone, has all the threads on the bottom missing now, so there's no more pocket, just a hole to the bottom of the inside of the coat.  So the inner pocket is useless despite not using it.  Just a head's up if this ever becomes available again...