Companies have to change their core values if they want to survive in the market.
See from a business point of view - you produce what a customer wants. Period.
Sadly almost every one care about mileage and less on safety.
Agreed to your point of producing what customer wants. But I do not agree this is the way to go for all the manufacturers, every one can not be Maruthi or Hyundai in India
But my point of view is that, If companies like Ford try to change their core values and build cars which are of light built to achieve more fuel efficiency then they will lose their loyal customers as they will not be having any option to upgrade with in same company make as cars will not be having their core values.
If they change their core values and build cars with light build, why will people buy Ford when they have Maruthi and Hyundai covering this very well.
In my humble opinion, they will not retain existing customers nor get new customers.
For Ex - I am existing Ford customer ( I own a Fiesta Classic) and love their build quality and handling, as of now I do not have any option to upgrade or buy any car apart from EcoSports from Ford, so instead of buying Aspire or Figo I might buy similar VFM cars like Elite 20 and Baleno
Where as for Loyal Maruthi and Hyundai Customers and mileage obsessed buyers they have plenty of options to choose from these two
so they will not come and buy Ford cars with these changes
Even with all these changes we can see how the Aspire and New Figo are getting numbers each month now