As its name suggests, the Malaise Era was a truly miserable period of American car manufacturing. The last 1970s and early 1980s found carmakers struggling to produce fuel economy in line with federal regulation and consumer wants. Outright performance was generally miserable—even the Corvette had years with less than 200 horsepower—and manufacturers took some desperate measures to make incredible fuel mileage. While some builders downsized their cars, Oldsmobile in 1980 took a different tact: Diesel engines!

If you’ve been around much, you know how that worked. The 5.7-liter diesel V8 was a poorly redesigned gas-engine block and the failure rate on the Olds diesel was astronomical. Today, they’re a rare curiosity and even in their day, it was probably rare to see two of them running at the same time. With that in mind, this 1980 commercial with 21 running Oldsmobile diesels is almost certainly the most of these horrendous engines running at the same time.

Poor Elmer the Gas Station Attendant almost certainly had the last laugh here when three of the SOB’s in the diesels broke down a mile later and had to walk back to use his phone for a tow.