It maybe is after the engine is up to temperature, but below that point I honestly don't think it makes any difference. The engine neither warms up quicker or returns any higher mpg on a short journey.
On a longer journey the extra MPG is noticeable (and was the same when I had the Cooper S - on 95RON the book MPG was unobtainable, on Super you could surpass it)
Town driving is so variable it’s impossible to come to any sort of meaningful conclusion either way. However it’s unlikely your car demonstrates a difference on one journey type but not another. If the car recommends Super, use Super. If it doesn’t, don’t use it. It is likely that you’ve actually noticed is a few mpg difference on long journeys, which represents perhaps a 5% improvement. Therefore when you are doing 20mpg around town that 5% becomes 0.5mpg, or ‘not noticeable.
But of course 5% over a tank is 5% over a tank regardless of whether you use the tank in two days on a long trip or three weeks around town, which is why your point doesn’t seem to make much sense.
60 litre tank and nearly 10p/litre difference (based on a quick comparison @ petrolprices.com).
Do you buy your petrol from petrolprices.com? No, you don’t
The only sensible comparison that makes sense is the difference in price at the filling stations you actually use (The difference on Petrolprices.com is accounted for by the fact each end of the scale is skewed – by very cheap fuel stations such as Asda which do not retail SUL and very expensive stations that do). I have never, ever paid 10p a litre more than regular for Super Unleaded. At Sainsburys, Tesco etc it’s 5p a litre different which on a 60 litre tank is under 3 quid a fill.
At 3 quid a fill, if the car recommends it, use it. If it doesn’t, don’t ever use it. It’s that simple and if the 3 quid every few weeks is such a big deal perhaps buy a 106 1.1 instead
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