diff --git a/R/fit.R b/R/fit.R
index 6fdb5265a..ca6c5928e 100644
--- a/R/fit.R
+++ b/R/fit.R
@@ -111,6 +111,16 @@ fit.model_spec <-
       rlang::abort("The 'control' argument should have class 'control_parsnip'.")
     }
     dots <- quos(...)
+
+    if (length(possible_engines(object)) == 0) {
+      rlang::abort(
+        glue::glue(
+          "No engines were loaded for `{class(object)[1]}`.",
+          " Please load a parsnip extension package that provides one.",
+          " See https://www.tidymodels.org/find/parsnip/ "
+        )
+      )
+    }
     if (is.null(object$engine)) {
       eng_vals <- possible_engines(object)
       object$engine <- eng_vals[1]
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test_fit_interfaces.R b/tests/testthat/test_fit_interfaces.R
index fd1d41534..3847c9209 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test_fit_interfaces.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test_fit_interfaces.R
@@ -108,3 +108,17 @@ test_that("elapsed time parsnip mods", {
   expect_equal(sum(grepl("Fit time", output3)), 0)
 })
 
+test_that('No loaded engines', {
+  expect_error(
+    linear_reg() %>% fit(mpg ~., data = mtcars),
+    regexp = NA
+  )
+  expect_error(
+    cubist_rules() %>% fit(mpg ~., data = mtcars),
+    regexp = "Please load a parsnip extension package that provides one"
+  )
+  expect_error(
+    poisson_reg() %>% fit(mpg ~., data = mtcars),
+    regexp = "Please load a parsnip extension package that provides one"
+  )
+})