Abstract—In Vehicular Ad-Hoc Networks (VANETs), ensuring robust security alongside high Quality-of-Service (QoS) is essential due to the network’s dynamic topology and limited infrastructure, which can impact safety and comfort applications. This paper presents an agent-based, security-aware multi-path route switching protocol designed to enhance QoS in VANETs. The protocol integrates a secure route-connectivity prediction agent, leveraging the Wiedemann car-following model, with a flexible QoS agent that intelligently selects and switches among secure multi-path routes from source to destination. Unlike traditional methods, the QoS agent employs multiple adaptive switching strategies—including Least Path Switching (LPS), Least Path Switching with Minimum Delay (LPSMD), and Least Disconnection Delay (LDD)—to maintain route stability and optimize performance. To secure communication, vehicular nodes utilize a hybrid key agreement mechanism combining Diffie-Hellman and Short Authentication String (SAS) protocols executed over Wi-Fi direct out-of-band channels. Extensive simulations in a heterogeneous VANET environment assess the protocol under varying conditions such as node density, average vehicle speed, data collection intervals, and the prevalence of Man-In-the-Middle Attacks (MITMAs). The results show that secure protocol variants significantly improve packet delivery ratios, especially under adversarial and high-mobility conditions, while incurring only modest increases in end-to-end delay due to security overhead. Performance trends remain consistent across scenarios, with LDD-based strategies achieving the best results in both secure and non-secure modes. These outcomes confirm the proposed protocol’s effectiveness in enhancing both security and QoS in real-time VANET environments.