If your looking for value a 140 is a great car depending on what you define as value. If your looking for a cheap car the 140 is anything but cheap. However for what you pay in costs you get one of the most comfortable and enjoyable to drive Mercedes cars made. Quite honestly the 220's seem cheap in comparision to the 140 (fit and finish wise that is)

I doubt you will get it much cheaper unless the owner is not knowledgable. The 140 has some pretty pricey parts on it and if the price goes too low the parts dealers will snap it up and break the car apart and sell the parts for a very heft profit.

I honestly don't think the early models are that great of a deal. For the few thousand dollars you save you get a car with higher miles and a lot more wear and tear on the interior and exterior. The newer models have more updated interior colors and wood trim and the cleaner single color exterior. Of course there is also the 14 speaker Bose audio system with 4 subwoofers on the rear deck. Im not sure when they started offering that for the 140 but I suspect the early models don't have it.