Vehicle ad hoc networks (VANET) are one of the most important technologies to provide various ITS services. While VANET requires rapid and reliable transmission, packet transmission in VANET is unstable because of high mobility. Many routing protocols have been proposed and assessed to improve the efficiency of VANET. However, topology-based routing protocols generate heavy overhead and long delay, and position-based routing protocols have frequent packet loss due to inaccurate node position. In this paper, we propose a position-based routing repair algorithm to improve the efficiency of VANET. This algorithm is proposed based on the premise that AODV (-PGB) can be used effectively in VANET, if the discovery, maintenance and repair mechanism of AODV is optimized for the features of VANET. The main focus of this algorithm is that the relay node can determine whether its alternative node exits and judge whether the routing path is disconnected. If the relay node is about to swerve from the routing path in a multi-hop network, the node recognizes the possibility of path loss based on a defined critical domain. The node then transmits a handover packet to the next hop node, alternative nodes and previous node. The next node repairs the alternative path before path loss occurs to maintain connectivity and provide seamless service. We simulated protocols using both the ideal traffic model and the realistic traffic model to assess the proposed algorithm. The result shows that the protocols that include the proposed algorithm have fewer path losses, lower overhead, shorter delay and higher data throughput compared with other protocols in VANET.