The high mobility of vehicles causes dynamic changes in topology of the nodes present in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) which can be considered as a type of mobile ad hoc network (MANET). The successful transmission of data packets in such a highly mobile, multi-hop, and infrastructure-free environment presents significant challenges and issues for the research community. Many studies have been conducted recently that focus on the different challenges and issues prevailing under different VANET scenarios. One of the important areas of research is the node localization. Localization of nodes or vehicles in VANET plays an essential role in many areas like intelligent transport system, tracking of vehicles, and prevention of vehicle collision. This paper aims at providing an efficient solution to the node localization problem by combining a range free technique and meta-heuristic optimization algorithm. The focus is on establishing an optimal node localization mechanism with less overhead suitable for VANET. For conducting the simulation and analysis with an aim to assess the efficiency of the proposed node location estimation mechanism the Intelligent Driver Model was used. The location of an unknown node is estimated using a hybrid approach by utilizing the localization and optimization strength of DV-Hop algorithm, a range-free location estimation technique and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO), an optimization algorithm respectively.